Basketball Recap: Jesus Rice Leads a Balanced Attack to Beat Sandalwood

Raines hasn't had quite the year their fans were hoping for to this point, but back-to-back wins may be a sign of good things to come. They secured a 57-52 W over the Sandalwood Saints on Friday. For the Vikings, this counts as revenge for the 72-69 win the Saints walked away with the last time they faced one another back in January of 2022.

Raines' win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Jesus Rice, who shot 4-for-7 from deep and dropped a double-double on 21 points and 11 boards. The match was Rice's third in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Timothy Cole, who posted 13 points.

Despite the loss, Sandalwood still got an impressive performance from Antonio Hodges, who had 15 points. Logan Wilkinson was another key player, putting up ten points.

Raines has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a massive bump to their 4-8 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 60.8 points per game. As for Sandalwood, their loss dropped their record down to 6-9.

Raines wasted no time getting back out on the court and has already played their next game, an 80-44 victory against FAMU DRS on the 4th. As for Sandalwood, they also didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next matchup, a 67-48 defeat against Fleming Island on the 4th.