The Murphy Panthers will be playing at home against the Williamson Lions at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Hopefully Murphy focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 17 on Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, Murphy was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap as they fell 53-49 to Theodore. The defeat unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Murphy in their matchups with Theodore: they've now lost five in a row.
Despite the loss, Murphy got a solid performance out of Deangelon Johnson, who scored 22 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kinley Simmons, who scored nine points along with eight rebounds.
Meanwhile, Williamson came tearing into Tuesday's game with three straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 22 points) and they left with even more momentum. They walked away with a 63-51 victory over Rain. Given Williamson's advantage in MaxPreps' Alabama basketball rankings (they are ranked 68th, while Rain is ranked 254th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Murphy's loss dropped their record down to 18-9. As for Williamson, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten matches, which provided a nice bump to their 19-6 record this season.
Murphy came out on top in a nail-biter against Williamson in their previous matchup back in January of 2023, sneaking past 46-44. Will Murphy repeat their success, or does Williamson have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
