The Plum Mustangs will head out on the road to take on the Armstrong River Hawks at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Plum has now lost ten straight, and the team is hunting for their first win since December 29.
Plum pushed their score all the way to 69 on Tuesday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a hard 83-69 fall against Penn Hills. Plum has struggled against Penn Hills recently, as their matchup on Tuesday was their eighth consecutive lost matchup.
Meanwhile, Armstrong's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Tuesday after their fifth straight loss. Their tough 61-35 loss to Shaler Area might stick with them for a while. While losing is never fun, Armstrong can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 182nd, while Shaler Area is ranked 12th).
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Jacob Szep, who scored 13 points along with two steals. Jack Valasek was another key contributor, scoring ten points along with two steals.
Armstrong struggled to work together and finished the game with only four assists. That's the fewest assists they've managed all season.
Plum has been struggling recently as they've lost 11 of their last 14 matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 5-14 record this season. As for Armstrong, they now have a losing record at 10-11.
Plum and Armstrong were neck-and-neck in their previous matchup back in January, but Plum came up empty-handed after a 63-62 loss. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Szep, who scored 26 points. Now that Plum knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
