Basketball Preview: Pine Crest Panthers vs. North Miami Beach Chargers
The Pine Crest Panthers will head out on the road to challenge the North Miami Beach Chargers at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
You can't lose the game if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Pine Crest's strategy against the Owls on Thursday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Pine Crest blew the Owls out of the water with a 83-30 final score. The win was a breath of fresh air for Pine Crest as it put an end to their three-game losing streak.
Pine Crest relied on the efforts of Rowan Hoffman, who scored 17 points along with six rebounds, and Dylan Wigoda, who scored 24 points. Hoffman has been hot recently, having posted 17 or more points the last ten times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Kareem Khouri, who scored 12 points.
Meanwhile, North Miami Beach really took it to the Sharks for the full four quarters, racking up a 68-41 win on the road. North Miami Beach pushed the score to 57-28 by the end of the third, a deficit the Sharks cut but never quite recovered from.
It was another big night for Jaycob Joseph, who scored 26 points along with seven rebounds and five assists. That makes it three consecutive games in which he has scored at least a third of North Miami Beach's points. Edgar Inoa was another key contributor, scoring 14 points along with eight rebounds and five assists.
Pine Crest's record is now 8-12. North Miami Beach's record now sits at 10-11.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the two teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Pine Crest hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 58 points per game. However, it's not like North Miami Beach struggles in that department as they've been averaging 59.8 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Pine Crest came up short against the Chargers when the teams last played back in February of 2023, falling 59-51. Can Pine Crest avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
