Preview: Millville Thunderbolts vs. Middle Township Panthers
The Millville Thunderbolts will head out on the road to challenge the Middle Township Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Millville will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps New Jersey Rankings (they are ranked 142nd, while Middle Township is ranked 11th).
Last Thursday, Millville came up short against St. Joseph and fell 59-51.
Meanwhile, Middle Township had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 15.5 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Saturday. They strolled past Bishop Eustace Prep with points to spare, taking the game 69-51.
Middle Township can attribute much of their success to Anthony Trombetta, who scored 22 points along with two steals, and Jamir McNeil, who scored 16 points along with nine rebounds and six steals. That's the first time this season that McNeil pulled down eight or more rebounds. Another player making a difference was Re'Ale Basquine, who scored nine points along with eight rebounds and three blocks.
Millville's loss dropped their record down to 8-5. As for Middle Township, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 11 of their last 12 games, which provided a nice bump to their 14-2 record this season.
Millville might still be hurting after the 66-42 defeat they got from Middle Township when the teams last played back in December of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of McNeil, who scored 25 points along with five steals. Now that Millville knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
