After flying high against the Lake Wales Highlanders last Friday, the Bartow Yellow Jackets came back down to earth. Bartow ended up on the wrong side of a rough 80-56 walloping at the hands of Winter Haven on Thursday. While losing is never fun, Bartow can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 176th, while Winter Haven is ranked fourth).
Several Yellow Jackets players turned in solid performances, despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Messiah Borders, who scored 16 points along with five assists. That's the first time this season that Borders scored 15 or more points. Another player making a difference was Antwan Willis, who scored 13 points.
Jamie Phillips jr continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines for Winter Haven, scoring 21 points along with five assists and five steals. Tyrese Mayo was another key contributor, scoring 14 points along with five rebounds and three steals.
Bartow bumped their record down to 8-8 with that defeat, which was their third straight on the road. As for Winter Haven, the win (which was their 14th in a row) raised their record to 14-1.
Bartow will head out on the road to take on Lake Gibson at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. As for Winter Haven, they will take on Florida State University High School at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday. Florida State University High School has been dominant on offense recently, as they've racked up an incredible 395 points over their last six games.
