Basketball Recap: Niceville's Luck Takes a Turn for the Worse on Thursday

After flying high against Cornerstone Charter Academy last Saturday, Niceville came back down to earth. The Niceville Eagles'2024 ended with a 71-57 loss against the East Lake Eagles on Thursday. While losing is never fun, Niceville can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 165th, while East Lake is ranked 34th).

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead East Lake to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jordan Bryant, who dropped a double-double on 22 points and 12 boards. Bryant is also on a roll when it comes to blocks, as he's now posted two or more in the last ten games he's played. Another player making a difference was Jeremiah Cooper, who posted 18 points in addition to six assists and five steals.

Eagles

Previous 5 Games

12/26/24 vs East Lake	57-71
12/21/24 vs Cornerstone Charter Academy	71-36
12/20/24 vs Rutherford	59-46
12/19/24 vs Port St. Joe	49-41
12/13/24 @ Fort Walton Beach	55-43

Niceville moved to 9-5 with that defeat, which also ended their six-game winning streak. As for East Lake, their victory bumped their record up to 10-1.

Niceville will get a bit of extra time to process the loss as their next game is a ways off. They'll take on Crestview at 7:00 p.m. on January 7, 2025. Niceville knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 55 points or more in their past three games -- so hopefully Crestview likes a good challenge. As for East Lake, they and Midfield will face off at 6:00 p.m. on Friday without much rest having both just played. Midfield will roll in looking for their fifth straight win, something East Lake surely won't give up without a fight.