Basketball Game Preview: Westlake Charter Explorers vs. Fortune Early College Panthers

By Team Reports Jan 30, 2025, 2:24am

Basketball Preview: Westlake Charter Explorers vs. Fortune Early College Panthers

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Westlake Charter is 0-5 against Fortune Early College since January of 2023 but things could change on Thursday. The Westlake Charter Explorers will take on the Fortune Early College Panthers at 7:30 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Fortune Early College will be up against a hot Westlake Charter squad: the team just extended their winning streak to three. Westlake Charter blew past Creative Connections Arts Academy 84-60 on Tuesday. The score at the end of the third wound up being the final score as the Explorers just coasted through the last quarter.

Quinones Fleeton

Points

01/28/25 vs Creative Connections Arts Academy28
01/23/25 @ Esparto12
01/21/25 vs Delta10
01/17/25 vs Stone Ridge Christian18
01/16/25 vs Elite12

Westlake Charter's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Quinones Fleeton, who went 12 of 20 en route to 28 points in addition to six rebounds and three steals. With that strong performance, Fleeton is now averaging an impressive 15.5 points per game. Brian Ash was another key player, dropping a double-double on 17 points and 12 boards.

Westlake Charter smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 29 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 13 offensive boards in six consecutive contests.

Meanwhile, you can't lose the game if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Fortune Early College's strategy against Delta on Tuesday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Fortune Early College blew Delta out of the water with a 115-36 final score. With the Panthers ahead 82-17 at the half, the game was all but over already.

Fortune Early College found their leader in freshman Keagan Schrader, who posted 12 points along with seven assists and three steals. The dominant performance gave Schrader a new career-high in assists. Another player making a difference was Taj Williams, who put up 12 points and seven rebounds.

Fortune Early College is on a roll lately: they've won 12 of their last 14 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 14-7 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 84.4 points per game. As for Westlake Charter, their win bumped their record up to 15-3.

Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as Westlake Charter and Fortune Early College are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Westlake Charter hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 69.6 points per game. However, it's not like Fortune Early College struggles in that department as they've been averaging 75.5 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.

Westlake Charter was taken down by Fortune Early College 81-40 in their previous matchup on January 7th. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Fortune Early College's Mekhi Tanner, who scored 17 points and seven assists. Now that Westlake Charter knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.

Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps