Basketball Recap: Mastery Charter North - Pickett Takes a Loss

Mastery Charter North - Pickett was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their fifth straight defeat. They lost 75-51 to the West Philadelphia Speedboys. While losing is never fun, the Pumas can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 404th, while the Speedboys are ranked 167th).

Xavier Howard was the offensive standout of the matchup as he posted 20 points and seven rebounds. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in points. Makel Butts was another key player, putting up 12 points.

Mastery Charter North - Pickett's loss dropped their record down to 6-13. As for West Philadelphia, they are on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-8 record this season.

Mastery Charter North - Pickett didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next contest, a 71-64 win against Boys' Latin Charter on the 30th. As for West Philadelphia, they will square off against Strawberry Mansion at 4:30 p.m. on February 6th. West Philadelphia knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past four matchups -- so hopefully Strawberry Mansion likes a good challenge.