Lely is 0-10 against Barron Collier since January of 2020 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Lely Trojans will be staying on the road to face off against the Barron Collier Cougars at 7:00 p.m. on February 8th. Lely will be strutting in after a win while Barron Collier will be coming in after a defeat.
It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Lely had no problem doing just that on Tuesday. They blew past the Bullsharks, posting a 69-32 victory on the road. Given Lely's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 348th, while Bonita Springs is ranked 747th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Barron Collier unfortunately witnessed the end of their five-game winning streak on Thursday. They fell just short of Gateway Charter by a score of 57-55. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Gabe Markhart, who dropped a double-double on 19 points and 11 rebounds. Spencer Clayton was another key contributor, scoring 14 points along with seven assists and five rebounds.
Lely has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-13 record this season. As for Barron Collier, their defeat ended a three-game streak of away wins and brought them to 17-8.
Things could have been worse for Lely, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 74-55 loss to Barron Collier in their previous meeting back in December of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Clayton, who scored 22 points along with six assists and five steals. Now that Lely knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
