Basketball Game Preview: St. Joseph Academy Flashes vs. Vero Beach Indians

The St. Joseph Academy Flashes and the Vero Beach Indians will round out the year against one another at at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (St. Joseph Academy has six straight wins, Vero Beach has three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

While St. Joseph Academy didn't have the best season last year (they finished 12-15), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past. They put the hurt on Stanton with a sharp 60-40 victory last Friday. With that win, the Flashes brought their scoring average up to 51 points per game.

Josh Wolff continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, going 7 of 10 on his way to 21 points in addition to six rebounds and six steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Tre Lipat, who went 5 for 11 on his way to 14 points in addition to seven boards and three steals.

Meanwhile, Vero Beach lost to Atlantic on the road by a 50-36 margin on Saturday. While losing is never fun, the Indians can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 293rd, while the Sharks are ranked 52nd).

St. Joseph Academy's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 6-3. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 57.0 points per game. As for Vero Beach, their defeat dropped their record down to 4-8.