Basketball Preview: Maplewood Rockets vs. Bristol Panthers
Maplewood is 0-10 against the Panthers since December of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Maplewood Rockets will head out on the road to face off against the Bristol Panthers at 7:00 p.m. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
You can't lose the game if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Maplewood's strategy against the Wildcats on Friday. Maplewood walked away with a 68-55 win over the Wildcats. Maplewood didn't have much to brag about two games back, but this victory makes it their second in a row.
Seth Roper was a one-man wrecking crew for Maplewood as he scored 28 points along with six rebounds and two steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Roper has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Alex Donaldson, who scored 12 points along with five steals.
Meanwhile, Bristol had already won nine in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 27.3 points), and they went ahead and made it ten on Friday. They took their contest on the road with ease, bagging a 72-28 victory over Windham. Bristol has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 12 contests by 22 points or more this season.
Maplewood's victory bumped their record up to 4-14. As for Bristol, they pushed their record up to 16-2 with that win, which was their fifth straight on the road.
Maplewood was taken down by the Panthers 81-51 in their previous meeting back in December of 2023. Can Maplewood avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
