Recap: Lakeland Christian Vikings vs. Mulberry Panthers
If the Lakeland Christian Vikings were feeling good off their 66-26 takedown of the Discovery Spartans last Friday, their most recent game may have dampened their spirits a bit. Lakeland Christian took a 70-57 hit to the loss column at the hands of Mulberry on Tuesday. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Lakeland Christian's defeat came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Eleni Katzaras, who scored 16 points along with five rebounds and two steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Issa Simpson, who scored 16 points along with seven rebounds.
Lorianys Castanon Cruz continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines for Mulberry, scoring 60 points. That makes it 11 consecutive games in which Castanon Cruz has scored at least a third of Mulberry's points.
Lakeland Christian's defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 11-5. As for Mulberry, the win was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 9-2.
Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Lakeland Christian will challenge McKeel Academy at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. McKeel Academy has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games. Mulberry on the road again on Thursday and play against Discovery at 6:30 p.m. on January 25th. Discovery will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Florida Rankings (they are ranked 613th, while Mulberry is ranked 256th).
