Basketball Recap: Petal Takes a Loss

Petal lost against Brandon back in December of 2024 and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Tuesday. The Petal Panthers took a 64-55 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Brandon Bulldogs. While losing is never fun, the Panthers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Mississippi basketball rankings (they are ranked 145th, while the Bulldogs are ranked 33rd).

Braylon Barnes continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines for Brandon, going 8 of 20 on his way to 26 points. Barnes' evening made it eight games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. Caiden Ratliff also deserves some recognition as he grabbed his first steal of the season.

Petal's loss was their third straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 8-16. The slump could be explained by some tough opposition over that stretch, namely Brandon, Pearl, and Pearl. As for Brandon, the win was the seventh in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 13-9.

Petal has already played their next contest (against Northwest Rankin), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing. Brandon has also has no score uploaded for their next match, this one against Pearl.