Having just played yesterday, the Palmetto Tigers will get right back to it and host the Manatee Hurricanes at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Palmetto comes in on four and Manatee on three.
On Monday, Palmetto was able to grind out a solid win over Winthrop College Prep Academy, taking the game 49-39. Given the Tigers' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 138th, while the Spartans are ranked 376th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Manatee). They took down Lakewood Ranch 90-72 on Tuesday. The Hurricanes pushed the score to 71-51 by the end of the third, a deficit the Mustangs cut but never quite recovered from.
Manatee's win came from a few key players Palmetto will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Keith Fields, who almost dropped a triple-double on 18 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists. He has been hot for a while, having also posted two or more steals the last 18 times he's played. Detmer Steffensen was another key player, going 6 of 12 on his way to 17 points and three steals.
Manatee's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 11-8. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 75.7 points per game. As for Palmetto, they are on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season.
Palmetto didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Manatee when the teams last played back in December of 2024, but they still walked away with a 64-58 win. Will Palmetto repeat their success, or does Manatee have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
