Preview: Gaither Cowboys vs. Plant City Raiders
Gaither is 0-3 against Plant City since November of 2017 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Wednesday. Having just played yesterday, the Gaither Cowboys will get right back to it and host the Plant City Raiders at 6:30 p.m. on December 13th. Gaither will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Florida Rankings (they are ranked 468th, while Plant City is ranked 93rd).
On Tuesday, Gaither was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap as they fell 58-52 to Alonso.
Gaither's defeat came about despite a quality game from Marc Fransberg, who scored 19 points. Those 19 points set a new season-high mark for Fransberg. Another player making a difference was Dante Sanchez, who scored 11 points.
Meanwhile, Plant City put another one in the bag on Tuesday to keep their perfect season alive. They walked away with a 57-47 win over Sumner. 57 seems to be a good number for Plant City as the team scooped up a win with the same number of points in their previous game.
Plant City's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Gavin Tinsley led the charge by scoring 16 points along with six rebounds. The game was Tinsley's third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Leroy Lucas, who scored 15 points along with five assists and five rebounds.
Gaither's loss dropped their record down to 2-5. As for Plant City, their victory bumped their record up to 7-0.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the two teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Gaither hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having only averaged 50 points per game. It's a different story for Plant City, though, as they've been averaging only 56.3 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Gaither came up short against Plant City in their previous matchup back in January, falling 65-58. Can Gaither avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.