The Lake Wales Highlanders will take on the Montverde Academy Eagles at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Having struggled with four losses in a row, Lake Wales turned things around against McKeel Academy on Tuesday. They took down the Wildcats 62-43. The Highlanders pushed the score to 49-23 by the end of the third, a deficit the Wildcats cut but never quite recovered from.
Sebastian Perez
| 01/14/25 vs McKeel Academy | 3 |
| 01/11/25 vs Freedom | 3 |
| 01/10/25 @ Sebring | 5 |
| 01/09/25 vs Lakeland | 2 |
| 01/07/25 vs Haines City | 2 |
Lake Wales can attribute much of their success to Sebastian Perez, who went 5 for 9 on his way to 12 points in addition to five assists and five boards. Perez has been hot for a while, having also posted two or more steals the last 11 times he's played. Another player making a difference was Jorge Ramirez, who posted 11 points and three steals.
Lake Wales smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 21 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 12 offensive boards in four consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, Montverde Academy is ranked highly in their home state and on Saturday they took on another highly ranked team in the form of Bella Vista College Preparatory School. Montverde Academy snuck past Bella Vista College Preparatory School with a 56-52 win. The victory was familiar territory for the Eagles who have now won three contests in a row.
Montverde Academy's win came from a few key players Lake Wales will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was CJ Ingram, who almost dropped a double-double on 12 points and nine boards. The team also got some help courtesy of Kayden Allen, who had 14 points and seven boards.
Montverde Academy is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-2 record this season. As for Lake Wales, their win ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 7-9.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as both are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Lake Wales hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 55.1 points per game. However, it's not like Montverde Academy struggles in that department as they've been averaging 77.7 points. 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 match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other basketball content.
