The Mariner Tritons will face off against the Northeast Vikings at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Mariner has been dominant on offense recently, as they've racked up an incredible 669 points over their last nine games.
It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Mariner had no problem doing just that on Saturday. They walked away with a 63-50 win over the Panthers. Given Mariner's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 84th, while Cypress Lake is ranked 310th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Mariner to victory, but perhaps none more so than Marcus Kelley Jr, who dropped a double-double on 24 points and 11 rebounds. Kelley Jr is on a roll when it comes to points, as he's now scored 15 or more in the last eight games he's played. Another player making a difference was Justin Lewis, who scored 15 points along with five rebounds and four steals.
Meanwhile, after a string of four wins, Northeast's good fortune finally ran out on Saturday. They took a 54-47 hit to the loss column at the hands of Seminole.
Despite their loss, Northeast saw several players rise to the challenge and make noteworthy plays. Jamaries Conyers, who dropped a double-double on 12 points and 15 rebounds, was perhaps the best of all. Conyers has been hot recently, having posted nine or more rebounds the last nine times he's played. Dominic Brown was another key contributor, scoring 17 points along with six rebounds and three steals.
Mariner has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine matches, which provided a nice bump to their 17-9 record this season. As for Northeast, their defeat dropped their record down to 13-11.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the pair are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Mariner hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 68.5 points per game. However, it's not like Northeast struggles in that department as they've been averaging 59.6 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more basketball content.
