Basketball Recap: St. Petersburg Proves Higher State Rank Is No Mistake

On Saturday, the St. Petersburg Green Devils didn't have too much trouble with the Winthrop College Prep Academy Spartans as they won 60-44. Given the Green Devils' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 129th, while the Spartans are ranked 349th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Nijaun Harris continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, going 11 of 23 on his way to 30 points. That makes it four consecutive games in which he has scored at least a third of St. Petersburg's points. Emir Gainer was another key player, putting up ten points and six assists.

St. Petersburg was working as a unit and finished the game with 18 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Winthrop College Prep Academy only racked up three assists.

Several Spartans players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Kai Brookins, who posted 11 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Jaiden Martin, who had nine points.

St. Petersburg has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 12-9 record this season. As for Winthrop College Prep Academy, their loss dropped their record down to 9-11.

St. Petersburg wasted no time getting back out on the court and has already played their next contest, a 76-63 win against Lakewood on the 21st. As for Winthrop College Prep Academy, they also didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next game, a 49-39 defeat against Palmetto on the 20th.