The Antioch Panthers will take on the Pittsburg Pirates at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Antioch has insisted on making their last three contests complete nail-biters, turning in a record of 1-2 during that stretch of close contests.
Last Tuesday, Antioch didn't have quite enough to beat Heritage and fell 63-60. While losing is never fun, the Panthers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 619th, while the Patriots are ranked 278th).
Devin Simes
| 02/11/25 @ Heritage | 31 |
| 12/27/24 @ Vintage | 18 |
| 12/21/24 @ Livermore | 18 |
| 01/23/24 @ Pittsburg | 18 |
| 12/07/24 @ Pitman | 17 |
Despite the defeat, Antioch got top-tier performance from Devin Simes, who went 9-for-15 en route to 31 points. The dominant performance gave Simes a new career-high in points. Another player making a difference was Dereon Ourm-Blackman, who posted 11 points.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Pittsburg). They really took it to Deer Valley for the full four quarters, racking up a 108-49 victory. The Pirates haven't had any issues with the Wolverines recently, as the game was their sixth consecutive win against them.
Pittsburg's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 15-10. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 79.7 points over those games. As for Antioch, they have been struggling recently as they've lost six of their last eight matches, which has put a noticeable dent in their 8-17 record this season.
Things could have been worse for Antioch, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 61-44 loss to Pittsburg in their previous meeting back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Pittsburg's Terrance Wiley, who went 8-for-20 to rack up 17 points along with eight boards and five assists. Now that Antioch knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
