Preview: McIntosh County Academy Buccaneers vs. Portal Panthers
McIntosh County Academy is 1-9 against Portal since January of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. Both teams will face off at 7:30 p.m. on January 16th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Both teams are coming into the match red-hot, with McIntosh County Academy sitting on four straight wins and Portal on three.
Last Saturday, McIntosh County Academy beat Bryan County 51-38.
McIntosh County Academy's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Brandon Johnson led the charge by scoring 19 points along with three steals. Johnson hasn't dropped below two steals for five straight games. Mj Quarterman was another key contributor, dropping a double-double on 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Meanwhile, even though Vidalia scored an imposing 55 points on Saturday, Portal still came out on top. Portal walked away with a 64-55 win over Vidalia. Given Portal's advantage in MaxPreps' Georgia basketball rankings (they are ranked 35th, while Vidalia is ranked 123rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
McIntosh County Academy is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 10-4 record this season. As for Portal, they pushed their record up to 14-1 with that win, which was their 20th straight at home dating back to last season.
McIntosh County Academy suffered a grim 66-44 defeat to Portal when the teams last played back in February of 2023. Can McIntosh County Academy avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
