The Lake Wales Highlanders fought the good fight in their overtime contest against the Mandarin Mustangs on Friday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell to the Mustangs 70-64. While losing is never fun, Lake Wales can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 510th, while Mandarin is ranked 233rd).
Lake Wales lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Jeremy Willingham, who scored 15 points along with six rebounds. Devin Ossinac was another key contributor, scoring 12 points along with five assists and three steals.
This is the second loss in a row for Lake Wales and nudges their season record down to 3-6. As for Mandarin, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 7-3 record this season.
Lake Wales will get a bit of extra time to process the loss as their next game is a ways off. They'll take on Bartow at 7:30 p.m. on January 5, 2024. Mandarin won't have much time to rest: their next matchup is against Baker County at 2:00 p.m. on December 23rd. Baker County is coming into the match on a four-game losing streak.
