Basketball Game Preview: Jesuit Tigers vs. Plant Panthers

A feisty cat fight is on tap when the Jesuit Tigers face off against the Plant Panthers at 8:00 p.m. on Friday... Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Plant will be up against a hot Jesuit team: the squad just extended their winning streak to four. Jesuit blew past Carrollwood Day 68-41 on Tuesday.

Carter Reins went supernova for Jesuit, going 10 of 11 on his way to 21 points and five boards. The dominant performance gave Reins a new career-high in points. Dylan Flach was another key player, going 5 for 9 en route to 15 points.

Meanwhile, Plant won against Plant City on Tuesday with 61 points and they decided to stick to that point total again on Wednesday. Plant blew past Riverview 61-35. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 133rd, while the Sharks are ranked 652nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Jesuit's win bumped their record up to 16-6. As for Plant, they have also been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten matches, which provided a nice bump to their 17-4 record this season.

Jesuit came out on top in a nail-biter against Plant in their previous meeting back in January of 2024, sneaking past 42-40. The rematch might be a little tougher for Jesuit since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.