Basketball Game Preview: South Lake Eagles vs. Eustis Panthers

South Lake is 1-9 against Eustis since January of 2016 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The South Lake Eagles will square off against the Eustis Panthers at 5:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, South Lake was beaten by Leesburg 58-14. While losing is never fun, the Eagles can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 254th, while the Yellow Jackets are ranked 72nd).

Despite the loss, South Lake had strong showings from Molly Burke, who posted six points, and Jazmyn Robles, who had five points.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Eustis). They came out on top against Deltona by a score of 61-48 on Thursday. The win was familiar territory for the Panthers who have now won three matchups in a row.

Eustis pushed their record up to 15-4 with the victory, which was their third straight on the road. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 52.0 points per game. As for South Lake, their defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 8-7.

South Lake couldn't quite finish off Eustis in their previous matchup back in December of 2023 and fell 42-39. Can South Lake avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.