Basketball Recap: Pinellas Park Takes a Loss

Pinellas Park was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their seventh straight loss dating back to last season. They were dealt an 80-43 defeat at the hands of the Clearwater Tornadoes. While losing is never fun, the Patriots can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 612th, while the Tornadoes are ranked 64th).

Pinellas Park's loss came despite strong showings from Devonte Hunter and Teaveon Weathers. Hunter went 8 of 15 on his way to 23 points, while Weathers went 5 of 9 on his way to 11 points along with five boards and three steals. The dominant performance also gave Hunter a new career-high in steals (two).

Even though they lost, Pinellas Park smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 16 offensive boards. That's the most offensive rebounds they've managed all season.

Clearwater's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Keshawn Andrews led the charge by going 7 of 11 on his way to 18 points and four steals. The match was Andrews' fourth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Zain Watson, who went 5 of 10 on his way to 14 points and three steals.

Pinellas Park's loss dropped their record down to 0-6. As for Clearwater, the win keeps them at an undefeated 6-0.

Pinellas Park will host Dunedin at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday. As for Clearwater, they will head out to take on Largo at 7:45 p.m. on December 20th. Clearwater is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 69.5 points per game this season.