The Clay County Panthers are taking a road trip to take on the Midland Trail Patriots at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.
Clay County is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They walked away with a 73-60 win over Calhoun on Tuesday. The Panthers didn't have much to brag about two games back, but this victory makes it their second in a row.
Meanwhile, Midland Trail beat PikeView 71-62 on Wednesday.
Midland Trail's win came from a few key players Clay County will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Payton Bailes, who almost dropped a double-double on 22 points and nine boards. That's the most rebounds he has posted since back in February of 2024. Another player making a difference was Thad Brown, who went 6 for 11 en route to 13 points along with five assists and five boards.
Midland Trail has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 9-6 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 65.0 points per game. As for Clay County, their win ended a 14-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 5-9.
Clay County came up short against Midland Trail in their previous meeting back in December of 2024, falling 54-45. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Bailes, who posted 20 points in addition to six rebounds and five assists. Now that Clay County knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
