Basketball Game Preview: Crooms Academy Panthers vs. Cocoa Beach Minutemen

The Crooms Academy Panthers will face off against the Cocoa Beach Minutemen on Wednesday. Crooms Academy is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 63.4 points per game this season.

Last Thursday, Crooms Academy ended up a good deal behind Mount Dora and lost 64-47. The Panthers have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

Crooms Academy's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Kenai Anderson, who almost dropped a double-double on 15 points and nine boards, and Raoh Connell, who posted 11 points. The game was Anderson's sixth in a row with at least ten points.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Cocoa Beach). They had just enough and edged Heritage out 79-76.

Crooms Academy better focus on containing Lukas Stevens and Garrett Ronsisvalle as the pair were huge in Cocoa Beach's win. Stevens went 5 of 12 on his way to 18 points and seven assists, while Ronsisvalle went 6 for 10 en route to 15 points along with six rebounds and five assists. That's the most points Stevens has posted since back in November of 2024. Max Louis was another key player, dropping a double-double on 18 points and ten boards.

Cocoa Beach smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 12 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 11 offensive rebounds in six consecutive matches.

Cocoa Beach has been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight contests, which provided a massive bump to their 11-14 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.3 points per game. As for Crooms Academy, their defeat dropped their record down to 11-9.

Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Crooms Academy has been crashing the rebounds this season, having averaged 37.4 boards per game. However, it's not like Cocoa Beach struggles in that department as they've been averaging 31 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other basketball content.