Preview: St. Francis Sharks vs. Marina Mariners
Two dominant guards in Sam Braun and Julius Robinson are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The St. Francis Sharks will head out on the road to take on the Marina Mariners at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: St. Francis has struggled recently with seven losses in a row, while Marina will arrive with eight straight wins.
St. Francis pushed their score all the way to 66 on Monday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They fell 73-66 to Seaside.
St. Francis' defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Braun, who scored 21 points, and Joseph Rose who scored 13 points along with seven rebounds and three blocks. Braun has been hot recently, having posted 19 or more points the last three times he's played. Another player making a difference was Jacob Jimenez, who scored eight points.
Even though they lost, St. Francis were working as a unit and finished the game with 17 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Even though Marina has not done well against Pacific Grove recently (they were 1-8 in their previous nine matchups), they didn't let the past get in their way on Wednesday. Marina came out on top against Pacific Grove by a score of 63-54.
Marina's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Robinson led the charge by scoring 19 points. Robinson is on a roll when it comes to points, as he's now scored 15 or more in the last 11 games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Jordan Bonnard Webb, who scored 14 points.
St. Francis has been struggling recently as they've lost 15 of their last 16 matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 2-20 record this season. As for Marina, their win was their fifth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 18-4.
St. Francis came up short against Marina in their previous matchup back in January, falling 69-65. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Robinson, who scored 38 points. Now that St. Francis knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
