Basketball Game Preview: Houston County Bears vs. Perry Panthers

The Houston County Bears and the Perry Panthers will round out the year against one another at at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. Houston County is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 58.4 points per game this season.

Houston County is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They came out on top against Bishop Snyder by a score of 72-61 on Saturday. Given the Bears' advantage in MaxPreps' basketball rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 46th in Georgia, while the Cardinals are ranked 199th in Florida), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Malik Gillespie was his usual excellent self, going 6 of 10 en route to 16 points along with seven assists and six boards. His afternoon made it five games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kam Plummer, who went 6 of 10 on his way to 15 points.

They weren't the only one working in the assists department: Houston County was working as a unit and finished the game with 24 assists. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their assist total in three consecutive games.

Meanwhile, Perry lost to Veterans at home by a 59-45 margin on Saturday. The Panthers have struggled against the Warhawks recently, as the game was their fifth consecutive lost matchup.

Houston County has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 10-4 record this season. As for Perry, their loss dropped their record down to 3-9.

Houston County strolled past Perry in their previous matchup back in December of 2023 by a score of 70-54. Will Houston County repeat their success, or does Perry have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.