Preview: Clarke County Eagles vs. Page County Panthers
The Clarke County Eagles will be playing in front of their home fans against the Page County Panthers at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Clarke County has four straight victories, Page County has seven straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Clarke County scored the most points they've had all season to find success on Thursday. Everything went their way against Mountain View as Clarke County made off with a 83-62 victory. Given Clarke County's advantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 192nd, while Mountain View is ranked 440th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Clarke County's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Louis Marino led the charge by almost dropping a double-double on 16 points and nine rebounds. It was the first time this season that Marino pulled down eight or more rebounds. Another player making a difference was Moses Day, who scored 13 points along with five rebounds and two steals.
Meanwhile, Page County pushed their score all the way to 55 on Friday, but even that wasn't enough to win. Their rough 76-55 defeat to Luray might stick with them for a while.
Clarke County has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 16-6 record this season. As for Page County, they have been struggling recently as they've lost ten of their last 11 games, which put a noticeable dent in their 4-19 record this season.
Clarke County was able to grind out a solid victory over Page County in their previous matchup two weeks ago, winning 64-52. Will Clarke County repeat their success, or does Page County have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
