The Mariner Tritons's road trip will continue as they head out to face the Gateway Eagles at 7:30 p.m. on January 26th. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Winning is just a little bit easier when you work as a team to rack up seven more assists than your opponent, a fact Mariner proved on Saturday. They secured a 74-70 W over Discovery.
Mariner's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Marcus Kelley Jr, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and ten rebounds. Kelley Jr has been hot recently, having posted 15 or more points the last three times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Corey Hunter, who scored 20 points along with five assists.
Meanwhile, Gateway had already won six in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 8.8 points), and they went ahead and made it seven on Thursday. They were the clear victor by a 76-56 margin over East Lee County. Given Gateway's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 105th, while East Lee County is ranked 504th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Mariner has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a massive bump to their 13-8 record this season. As for Gateway, they pushed their record up to 16-2 with that win, which was their 14th straight at home.
Mariner didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Gateway in their previous meeting back in December of 2022, but they still walked away with a 51-47 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Mariner since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
