The Panther Valley Panthers will be playing in front of their home fans against the Pine Grove Cardinals at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Panther Valley has five straight wins, Pine Grove has three straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Panther Valley can now show off five landslide victories after their most recent match on Saturday. They really took it to Jim Thorpe for the full four quarters, racking up a 70-38 victory at home. Given Panther Valley's advantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 207th, while Jim Thorpe is ranked 579th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Maddison Maynard and Morgan Orsulak were among the main playmakers for Panther Valley as the former dropped a double-double on 14 points and ten rebounds and the latter dropped a double-double on 23 points and 18 rebounds. Maynard is absolutely dominating the steal category: she's posted at least two every time she's taken the court this season. Another player making a difference was Kaidence Krapf, who scored nine points along with two steals.
Meanwhile, Pine Grove opened the new year with a less-than-successful 51-39 loss to Tamaqua.
Panther Valley's win was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 11-4. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 55.0 points per game. As for Pine Grove, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-5.
Panther Valley strolled past Pine Grove in their previous meeting back in December of 2023 by a score of 57-40. Does Panther Valley have another victory up their sleeve, or will Pine Grove turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
