The Mainland Buccaneers lost to the Boone Braves back in December of 2021, but the Mainland Buccaneers didn't allow the Boone Braves the same satisfaction on Thursday. Mainland walked away with a 48-39 victory over Boone. Given Mainland's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 61st, while Boone is ranked 451st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Mainland's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was DeAndre Newland, who scored 10 points along with 7 rebounds and 5 blocks. Narayan Thomas was another key contributor, scoring 9 points along with 18 rebounds.
Despite the loss, Boone still got an impressive performance from Cheo James, who scored 19 points along with 6 rebounds. James scored a full 48.7% of Boone's points, the second time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Harrison Summer, who scored 7 points.
Mainland's victory bumped their record up to 4-1. As for Boone, they still haven't won a game yet this season and fell to 0-3.
Mainland will be staying on the road on Saturday to face off against Osceola at 5:00 p.m. on December 2nd. Allowing an average of 50 points per game, Osceola has struggled on the defensive end, but that doesn't have to be the case in this game. As for Boone, they will be playing at home against Timber Creek at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Hopefully Timber Creek focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 18 on Thursday.
