Basketball Recap: Max Neelley's Big Game Can't Quite Lead Gainesville over Celina

Gainesville was the 83-78 winner over Celina when they last played one another back in January, but their luck changed this time around. The Gainesville Leopards lost to the Celina Bobcats at home by a 60-43 margin on Tuesday. While losing is never fun, the Leopards can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 394th, while the Bobcats are ranked 169th).

Gainesville's defeat came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Max Neelley, who posted ten points and seven boards. Another player making a difference was Ray Glancy, who had ten points and six rebounds.

Gainesville has been struggling recently as they've lost six of their last eight matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 17-17 record this season. Those losses can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.8 points per game. As for Celina, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 20-13.

Gainesville will look to defend their home court on Friday against Van Alstyne at 7:30 p.m. Gainesville is facing Van Alstyne at the right time seeing as Van Alstyne is stuck on a ten-game losing streak. As for Celina, they will challenge Sanger at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Sanger knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 55 points or more in their past four games -- so hopefully Celina likes a good challenge.