Basketball Recap: Ja'kiyah Mangum's Big Game Can't Quite Lead Apex over Panther Creek

Apex lost against Panther Creek back in December of 2024 and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. The Apex Cougars fell 53-41 to the Panther Creek Catamounts. While losing is never fun, the Cougars can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 462nd, while the Catamounts are ranked 126th).

Apex lost despite a true team effort on offense, the best among them being Ja'Kiyah Mangum, who went 6 for 8 en route to 15 points. The dominant performance also gave Mangum a new career-high in assists (two). Finley Heath also deserves some recognition as she grabbed her first steal of the season.

Sasha Boddie was a one-woman wrecking crew for Panther Creek as she dropped a double-double on 23 points and 11 rebounds. Malone Hicks was another key player, putting up eight points along with ten boards and five steals.

Apex has traveled a rocky road recently having lost seven of their last eight matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 3-16 record this season. As for Panther Creek, the victory was the seventh in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 11-6.

Apex has already played their next game (against Holly Springs), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing. Panther Creek has already played their next contest, a 64-53 defeat against Green Hope on the 4th.