Basketball Game Preview: Rockledge Raiders vs. Palm Bay Pirates

The Rockledge Raiders will square off against the Palm Bay Pirates on Thursday. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Rockledge is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They came out on top against Atlantic by a score of 29-22.

Shaniya Jones and Ja'Mia Wilson were among the main playmakers for Rockledge as the former posted seven points along with 14 boards and four steals and the latter put up nine points in addition to eight rebounds and four steals. The dominant performance gave Wilson a new career-high in points.

Meanwhile, Palm Bay had already won seven in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 47.7 points) and they went ahead and made it eight on Friday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat the Patriots 60-30. The Pirates have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 12 games by 25 points or more this season.

Palm Bay has also been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 18-7 record this season. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 29.4 points per game. As for Rockledge, their victory bumped their record up to 7-14.

Rockledge was dealt a bruising 83-10 loss at the hands of Palm Bay in their previous meeting back in December of 2022. Thankfully for Rockledge, Emma Risch (who almost dropped a triple-double on 26 points, ten boards, and nine assists) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.