Basketball Recap: Jalen Byrd's Big Game Can't Quite Lead Southeast over Sarasota

Southeast lost against Sarasota back in January of 2024 and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. The Southeast Seminoles fell 78-68 to the Sarasota Sailors. While losing is never fun, the Seminoles can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 254th, while the Sailors are ranked 41st).

Southeast lost despite a true team effort on offense, the best among them being Jalen Byrd, who dropped a double-double on 16 points and 11 rebounds. The dominant performance gave Byrd a new career-high in boards. Another player making a difference was Jamarri Bivens, who went 8 of 15 en route to 19 points.

Southeast dropped their record down to 11-9 with the loss, which was their third straight on the road. Their recent woes sure aren't a result of their performance when it comes to three-point shooting accuracy: their three-point shooting accuracy was 36.5% in those games and 31.9% outside of them. As for Sarasota, the win was the 11th in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 21-2.

Southeast has already played their next contest, a 68-56 victory against Manatee on the 28th. As for Sarasota, they also wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next match, a 59-50 win against Cardinal Mooney on the 25th.