Recap: Hardee Wildcats vs. Mulberry Panthers
The Hardee Wildcats suffered their biggest loss yet this season on Friday. They were dealt a 63-21 loss at the hands of Mulberry. Hardee has not had much luck with Mulberry recently, as the team's come up short the last three times they've met.
Despite the defeat, Hardee had strong showings from Jazlynn Jones, who scored eight points, and Rihanna Frederick, who scored four points.
Lorianys Castanon Cruz was her usual excellent self, scoring 37 points for Mulberry. That makes it ten consecutive games in which Castanon Cruz has scored at least a third of Mulberry's points. Another player making a difference was Alana Standifer, who scored 11 points.
Hardee bumped their record down to 3-11 with that loss, which was their fourth straight at home. That rough patch could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 20.5 points per game. As for Mulberry, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-2 record this season.
Hardee and Lake Placid will face off at 6:30 p.m. on January 22nd without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Lake Placid's defense has only allowed 29.5 points per game this season, so Hardee's offense will have their work cut out for them. As for Mulberry, they will head out on the road to face off against Lakeland Christian at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Lakeland Christian is also coming in off of a big victory, so somebody is in for a big reversal of fortune.
