Palm Bay has enjoyed the comforts of home their last two games, but now they'll head out on the road. They will square off against the Viera Hawks at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Last Thursday, Palm Bay faced American Heritage in a battle between two of the state's top teams. Palm Bay came out on top in a nail-biter against American Heritage and snuck past 58-55. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
Palm Bay can attribute much of their success to Jaida Civil, who scored 23 points along with six rebounds and four steals, and Kiara Williams, who dropped a double-double on 24 points and ten rebounds. Those 24 points set a new season-high mark for her. Another player making a difference was Erynn Moffett, who scored seven points along with six rebounds.
Meanwhile, Viera waltzed into their game Thursday with four straight wins but they left with five. They walked away with a 37-28 victory over Heritage. Given Viera's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 114th, while Heritage is ranked 238th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Phantasia Lauriston continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 19 points. The match was her seventh in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kylie Winslow, who scored three points along with four steals.
Palm Bay's win was their 11th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 6-3. They've been dominating during the matches in that stretch too, as they've won by an average of 34.73 points. As for Viera, their win bumped their record up to 7-2.
Keep an eye on the arc in Monday's game: Palm Bay have been dynamite from deep this season, having nailed 41.6% of their threes per game. It's a different story for Viera, though, as they've only made 22% of their threes per game this season. Given Palm Bay's sizeable advantage in that area, Viera will need to find a way to close that gap.
Everything went Palm Bay's way against Viera in their previous meeting back in November of 2022 as Palm Bay made off with a 69-45 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Palm Bay since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
