The Portland Panthers will challenge the White House Blue Devils at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Portland is headed into the contest having just suffered their closest defeat since January 17th on Friday. They fell just short of Greenbrier by a score of 64-61.
Keilen Dalton
| 02/14/25 vs Greenbrier | 18 |
| 02/11/25 @ White House | 18 |
| 02/07/25 vs Macon County | 17 |
| 02/04/25 vs Jo Byrns | 33 |
Portland's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Tristan Calvert, who went 6-for-13 en route to 12 points, and Keilen Dalton, who went 7-for-9 on his way to 18 points and seven rebounds. Dalton's evening made it four games in a row in which he has scored at least 17 points. Another player making a difference was Quenten Totten, who went 6-for-10 to rack up 13 points.
Meanwhile, White House earned a 58-51 victory over Macon County on Friday. The Blue Devils haven't had any issues with the Tigers recently, as the game was their fourth consecutive win against them.
White House's win came from a few key players Portland will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Kenny Holt, who went 5-for-9 en route to 16 points. He has become a key player for White House: the team is undefeated when he posts at least 15 points, but 7-16 otherwise. Louis Taylor was another key player, putting up 16 points and seven boards.
Portland's defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 12-14. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 69.0 points over those games. As for White House, their victory bumped their record up to 11-16.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Portland has been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 28 rebounds per game. However, it's not like White House struggles in that department as they've been averaging 23.6 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Portland skirted past White House 50-48 in their previous meeting last Tuesday. Will Portland repeat their success, or does White House have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
