Basketball Game Preview: Foundation Academy Lions vs. Santa Fe Catholic Hawks

The Foundation Academy Lions will face off against the Santa Fe Catholic Hawks at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Foundation Academy comes in on four and Santa Fe Catholic on nine.

Foundation Academy is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Wednesday. They narrowly escaped with a win as the squad sidled past Cornerstone Charter Academy 62-59. Given the Lions 's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 153rd, while the Ducks are ranked 423rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Josh Mercado went supernova for Foundation Academy, almost dropping a double-double on 26 points and nine rebounds. The dominant performance gave Mercado a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Riley Michels, who went 5 of 11 on his way to 12 points in addition to eight boards and five blocks.

Meanwhile, Santa Fe Catholic was fully in charge on Wednesday, breezing past Lakeland Christian 74-28. The Hawks have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 11 matchups by 22 points or more this season.

Foundation Academy better keep an eye on Tate Darner. He was instrumental in Santa Fe Catholic's win, going 8 for 13 en route to 23 points and three steals. Darner's evening made it ten games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. Ethan Knox was another key player, going 6 of 13 on his way to 12 points along with eight rebounds and three steals.

Santa Fe Catholic has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 12 of their last 13 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 18-8 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 70.4 points per game. As for Foundation Academy, their victory bumped their record up to 18-8.

Things could have been worse for Foundation Academy, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took an 82-67 loss to Santa Fe Catholic when the teams last played two weeks ago. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Darner, who went 15 for 21 en route to 34 points in addition to seven assists and five boards. Now that Foundation Academy knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.