After both having extra time off, the Dr. Phillips Panthers and the Winter Haven Blue Devils will dust off their jerseys to challenge one another at 1:00 p.m. on March 8th. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Dr. Phillips comes in on 18 and Winter Haven on ten.
It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Dr. Phillips had no problem doing just that two weeks ago. They walked away with a 58-51 win over the Pioneers. Given Dr. Phillips' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked sixth, while Oak Ridge is ranked 57th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Trinity Turner and Kendall Perry were among the main playmakers for Dr. Phillips as the former dropped a double-double on 15 points and 13 rebounds and the latter scored 21 points along with five assists and five rebounds. Turner hasn't dropped below two steals for 13 straight games. Another player making a difference was Leah Bullard, who scored five points along with two steals.
Meanwhile, Winter Haven didn't have too much trouble with Venice on the road two weeks ago as they won 60-46.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Winter Haven to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jaeden Williams, who almost dropped a double-double on 13 points and nine steals. Williams hasn't dropped below two steals for 16 straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Dashanique Henry, who scored 14 points along with eight rebounds and three steals.
Dr. Phillips' victory bumped their record up to 25-4. As for Winter Haven, they are on a roll lately: they've won 14 of their last 15 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 23-5 record this season.
Friday's game is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Dr. Phillips have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 43 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Winter Haven struggles in that department as they've been averaging 29.8 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Dr. Phillips didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Winter Haven when the teams last played back in February of 2023, but they still walked away with a 47-43 victory. Does Dr. Phillips have another victory up their sleeve, or will Winter Haven turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
