The Patriot Pioneers pushed their score all the way to 57 on Monday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a 73-57 bruising from Gainesville. Patriot has struggled against Gainesville recently, as their game on Monday was their fifth consecutive lost matchup.
Despite the loss, Patriot still got an impressive performance from Ella Negron, who scored 29 points along with seven rebounds. Negron scored a full 50.9% of Patriot's points, the fourth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Maysa Bilal, who scored nine points.
Gainesville got their win on the backs of several key players, but it was Madison McKenzie out in front who scored 24 points along with four steals. That makes it four consecutive games in which McKenzie has scored at least 25% of Gainesville's points. Grace Ellingson was another key contributor, scoring 20 points.
Patriot's loss dropped their record down to 4-4. As for Gainesville, their win bumped their record up to 8-0-1.
Patriot is on the road again on December 27th and play against Falls Church at 12:45 p.m. on December 27th. Falls Church will be looking to extend their current six-game winning streak. Gainesville will be home for the holidays to greet North Stafford at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. North Stafford will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Virginia Rankings (they are ranked 166th, while Gainesville is ranked first).
