Basketball Preview: Spoto Spartans vs. Freedom Patriots
The Spoto Spartans will head out on the road to challenge the Freedom Patriots at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Spoto will be strutting in after a victory while the Patriots will be coming in after a defeat.
Even though Jefferson scored an imposing 63 points on Thursday, Spoto still came out on top. Spoto slipped by the Dragons 64-63. The victory was just what Spoto needed coming off of a 74-41 loss in their prior game.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Spoto to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jose Deleon, who dropped a double-double on 23 points and 14 rebounds. That makes it four consecutive games in which Deleon has scored at least a third of Spoto's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Donovan McSwain, who scored 21 points along with two steals.
Meanwhile, Freedom's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Friday after their third straight defeat. They fell to Plant 40-34. While losing is never fun, Freedom can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 380th, while the Panthers are ranked 129th).
Spoto's win ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 9-13. As for Freedom, they have traveled a rocky road recently having lost five of their last six games, which put a noticeable dent in their 11-14 record this season.
Spoto and the Patriots were neck-and-neck in their previous meeting back in November of 2023, but the Spartans came up empty-handed after a 54-53 defeat. Can Spoto avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
