Basketball Game Preview: Palm Bay Pirates vs. Rockledge Raiders

The Palm Bay Pirates will square off against the Rockledge Raiders on Thursday. Palm Bay will be looking to extend their current eight-game winning streak.

Palm Bay is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another highly-ranked state team: Hillcrest, who was ranked second in their home state at the time (Palm Bay was ranked fifth). Palm Bay took their matchup on Friday with ease, bagging a 60-30 win over Hillcrest. The Pirates have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 12 games by 25 points or more this season.

Meanwhile, it can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Rockledge had no problem doing just that on Tuesday. They walked away with a 29-22 victory over the Sharks.

Palm Bay better focus on containing Shaniya Jones and Ja'Mia Wilson as the pair were huge in Rockledge's win. Jones posted seven points in addition to 14 rebounds and four steals, while Wilson had nine points along with eight boards and four steals. The dominant performance gave Wilson a new career-high in points.

Palm Bay has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten contests, which provided a nice bump to their 18-7 record this season. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 29.4 points per game. As for Rockledge, their win bumped their record up to 7-14.

Everything came up roses for Palm Bay against Rockledge when the teams last played back in December of 2022, as the squad secured an 83-10 victory. In that match, Palm Bay amassed a halftime lead of 52-10, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Thursday.