If the Pine Ridge Panthers were riding high off their 62-26 takedown of the Tavares Bulldogs on Friday, their most recent game may have dampened their spirits a bit. Pine Ridge was beaten by Mainland 74-37 on Saturday. Pine Ridge has struggled against Mainland recently, as their matchup on Saturday was their fourth consecutive lost matchup.
Despite the loss, Pine Ridge still got an impressive performance from Elijah Laird, who scored 19 points along with five rebounds. Laird has been hot recently, having posted 15 or more points the last ten times he's played.
Leading Mainland to victory were Nathan Kirk and Narayan Thomas. Kirk scored 20 points along with seven steals and six assists, while Thomas dropped a double-double on 27 points and ten rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Thomas has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of DeAndre Newland, who scored eight points along with nine rebounds.
Pine Ridge's defeat dropped their record down to 7-11. As for Mainland, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season.
Pine Ridge will look to defend their home court on Tuesday against Astronaut at 7:30 p.m. Astronaut presents a significant challenge as they come into the match much higher ranked than Pine Ridge in Florida (Astronaut is ranked 184th, while Pine Ridge is ranked 428th). Mainland on the road again on Wednesday and play against Atlantic at 7:00 p.m. on January 24th. One thing working in Atlantic's favor is that they have posted big point totals in their last four matchups.
