Basketball Game Preview: Bartow Yellow Jackets vs. Milton Panthers

Two dominant guards in Ja'Kylen Crossley and Treymar Jones are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Bartow Yellow Jackets will challenge the Milton Panthers at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. One thing working in Bartow's favor is that they have posted at least 55 points in their last four games.

Last Thursday, Bartow was fully in charge, breezing past Winter Haven 73-43. The contest was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 50-22.

Messiah Borders

Points (Career)

01/16/25 vs Winter Haven	27
01/10/25 @ Kathleen	18
12/06/24 @ Santa Fe Catholic	17
01/11/24 @ Winter Haven	16
12/13/24 vs Berkeley Prep	15

Messiah Borders was nothing short of spectacular: he went 6 for 9 from beyond the arc en route to 27 points and six steals. Those 27 points gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Crossley, who went 5 of 10 on his way to 14 points.

Bartow was working as a unit and finished the game with 19 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Winter Haven only racked up eight assists.

Meanwhile, Milton came tearing into Friday's matchup with four straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 15.3 points) and they left with even more momentum. They secured a 44-38 W over the Blue Devils.

Milton has also been performing well recently as they've won seven of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 13-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 58.4 points per game. As for Bartow, they pushed their record up to 13-6 with the victory, which was their tenth straight at home dating back to last season.