Basketball Recap: South Dade Takes a Tough Playoff Loss

It's hard to turn regular season success into postseason wins, a fact South Dade can now relate to. They took a 42-36 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Palmetto Panthers. The loss continues a trend for the Buccaneers in their matchups with the Panthers: they've now lost nine in a row.

Justice Sheppard

Points (Career)

02/06/25 vs Palmetto	21
01/29/25 @ Braddock	20
12/18/24 @ Coral Park	19
11/18/24 vs Coral Reef	17
12/13/24 @ Coral Reef	16

Despite the loss, South Dade still got an impressive performance from Justice Sheppard, who posted 21 points along with five rebounds and three steals. The dominant performance gave Sheppard a new career-high in points. Jurnee Walters was another key player, putting up eight points and five assists.

Alessandra Falcon continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines for Palmetto, going 9 for 14 on her way to 20 points in addition to six boards and six steals. Palmetto is 5-2 when Falcon posts three or more steals, but 2-5 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Florencia Caceres, who scored two points and four steals.

South Dade's defeat dropped their record down to 8-12. As for Palmetto, the victory got them back to even at 7-7.

South Dade does not have any more games scheduled as of now. As for Palmetto, they didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next match, a 53-35 loss against Ferguson on the 7th.