Basketball Game Preview: Palisades Pirates vs. Saucon Valley Panthers

The Palisades Pirates are taking a road trip to take on the Saucon Valley Panthers at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Palisades is coming into the matchup on a five-game losing streak.

Palisades is headed into the game out to prove that what happened against Catasauqua on Thursday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Palisades was outmatched by Catasauqua and fell 73-39. The Pirates were down 61-31 at the end of the third quarter, and things only got worse from there.

Despite the loss, Palisades had strong showings from Lincoln Cook, who went 6 for 12 on his way to 17 points, and Blake Oglialoro, who dropped a double-double on 13 points and ten rebounds.

Meanwhile, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Saucon Valley beat Salisbury Township 45-41 on Thursday. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Panthers.

Saucon Valley's win came from a few key players Palisades will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Adam Clark, who posted 16 points. Andrew Gilbert was another key player, putting up eight points.

Saucon Valley has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 7-4 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 50.5 points per game. As for Palisades, their defeat dropped their record down to 2-9.

Palisades suffered a grim 68-43 defeat to Saucon Valley when the teams last played back in February of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Saucon Valley's Jack Robertson, who went 8 of 16 on his way to 21 points and seven rebounds. Now that Palisades knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.