Preview: Lemon Bay Manta Rays vs. Lakewood Spartans
The Lemon Bay Manta Rays's road trip will continue as they head out to face the Lakewood Spartans at 7:00 p.m. on February 14th. Lemon Bay 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 204th, while Lakewood is ranked 52nd).
Lemon Bay and Aubrey Rogers squared off in some playoff action on Wednesday, but sadly Lemon Bay had to settle for second. They fell 60-49 to the Patriots.
The losing side was boosted by Maya Collins, who scored 31 points along with eight steals and six rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points she has scored all season. Kylie Jones was another key contributor, scoring eight points along with eight rebounds and two steals.
Even though they lost, Lemon Bay smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 20 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Aubrey Rogers only pulled down seven offensive rebounds.
Meanwhile, Lakewood had already won seven in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 39.4 points), and they went ahead and made it eight on Friday. They blew past Academy of the Holy Names 66-45. Lakewood has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 12 games by 21 points or more this season.
Sumayah McIntosh continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 20 points along with six steals and five rebounds. She hasn't dropped below four steals for eight straight games. Another player making a difference was Alahni Lovett, who scored 14 points along with five assists and five steals.
Lemon Bay now has a losing record at 12-13. As for Lakewood, they are on a roll lately: they've won 14 of their last 15 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 20-4 record this season.
Wednesday's game is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Lemon Bay have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 31.9 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Lakewood struggles in that department as they've been averaging 27.6 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out. Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other basketball content.
