Preview: Palatka Panthers vs. Menendez Falcons
Palatka is 1-9 against Menendez since January of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Monday. The Palatka Panthers will head out on the road to face off against the Menendez Falcons at 6:00 p.m. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Palatka had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 19 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Saturday. They took down Seabreeze 59-44.
Palatka can attribute much of their success to Jhane Fountain , who scored 17 points, and Charnelle Cue , who scored 20 points. That makes it three consecutive games in which Fountain has scored at least 25% of Palatka's points. Another player making a difference was Mikhia Peeples, who scored 7 points.
Meanwhile, everything came up roses for Menendez on the road against Vanguard on Saturday as the team secured a 65-11 victory. Given Menendez's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 147th, while Vanguard is ranked 320th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Palatka's win bumped their season record to 3-1 while Seabreeze's loss dropped theirs to 0-4.
Palatka was dealt a bruising 58-31 loss at the hands of Menendez when the teams last played back in January. Can Palatka avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
