Cocoa Beach falls despite strong effort from Jay Matthews

By Team Reports Dec 13, 2023, 6:25am

Recap: Cocoa Beach Minutemen vs. New Smyrna Beach Barracudas

After a string of five wins, the Cocoa Beach Minutemen's's good fortune finally ran out on Monday. They took a 60-51 hit to the loss column at the hands of New Smyrna Beach. The result shouldn't come as a shock considering that's the fewest points Cocoa Beach has scored all season.

Despite the loss, Cocoa Beach still got an impressive performance from Jay Matthews, who scored 18 points along with seven rebounds and four steals. Matthews scored a full 35.3% of Cocoa Beach's points, the eighth time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Max Louis, who scored ten points along with six rebounds.

Cocoa Beach's loss ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 5-3. As for New Smyrna Beach, their victory was their eighth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 6-0.

Both teams are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. Cocoa Beach will take on Satellite at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Satellite presents a significant challenge as they come into the match much higher ranked than Cocoa Beach in Florida (Satellite is ranked 145th, while Cocoa Beach is ranked 309th). As for New Smyrna Beach, they will be playing in front of their home fans against Bridge to Independence at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.