The Lakewood Spartans and the Plant Panthers will compete for holiday cheer on Friday. Lakewood is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 67.4 points per game this season.
Last Saturday, Lakewood came up short against Wildwood and fell 64-51. While losing is never fun, the Spartans can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 90th, while the Wildcats are ranked fifth).
Loss or not, Lakewood got some senior leadership from Sumayah McIntosh and CaMari Hopkins. McIntosh went 7 of 15 en route to 15 points along with seven rebounds and six assists, while Hopkins dropped a double-double on 14 points and 15 boards. Those 15 boards gave Hopkins a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Mikayla Paschal, who posted ten points and five rebounds.
Even though they lost, Lakewood smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 14 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 14 offensive rebounds in three consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Plant's contest on Friday was close up to the half, which is when they kicked things up a notch. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Blake 53-26. The Panthers have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won four matchups by 27 points or more this season.
Plant has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five games, which provided a massive bump to their 5-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 29.0 points per game. As for Lakewood, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-4.
Lakewood beat Plant 48-39 in their previous matchup back in January. Does Lakewood have another victory up their sleeve, or will Plant turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
