The Steel City Yellow Jackets have an important weekend coming up as the regular season starts to wind down.
The defending American Basketball Association (ABA) champions were supposed to play this past Saturday against the DC Soul at home, but COVID canceled that contest (it isn’t certain if that game will be rescheduled). Now, the 10-2 Yellow Jackets are set to take on the Ohio Bruins in Westerville, Ohio.
The Ohio/Pennsylvania rivals played in Pittsburgh back on November 20, and the Yellow Jackets squeaked by with a 131-130 victory. The Steel City’s franchise improved to 3-0 in the early season. Kenny Holmes had 40 points for the winners, but since then, he has moved on to Canada. In addition, 7’ Artis Cleveland collected 18 rebounds.
But Antonio Reddic, Sr., Gilmore Cummings, and Claude Scott, Jr. were on the injured list. Since then, Reddic has returned to All-Star form, and Scott is nearly at mid-season form. Cummings is coming off concussion protocol after hitting his head hard on the floor a few weeks ago.
For the Yellow Jackets, Tim and James Jackson have only gotten better, and Dominick McClung has helped solidify a “big man” presence under the net.
The Bruins are led by Jay Farrow, who scored 35 points in that first game, as well as Matt Bingaya, Allante Gorham, and Josh Shannon.
And the next afternoon in Pittsburgh, Ace Pippens’ crew is to play against the Tri-State Blazers. The Sunday, 5:00 p.m. game is a return contest between the teams from January 7. Back then, the Yellow Jackets traveled to West Virginia and won, 158-126.
Holmes led all scorers in the game against the Blazers as well. Ryan Montoya, who scored five points in that game, has become more accustomed to the Yellow Jackets’ offense.
Justin Fagen and Pat Jones are expected to be among the leaders for the Blazers.