The Mulberry Panthers will head out on the road to square off against the Lakeland Christian Vikings at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Mulberry posted their biggest victory yet this season on Friday. They really took it to Hardee for the full four quarters, racking up a 63-21 win on the road. Given Mulberry's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 281st, while Hardee is ranked 582nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Lorianys Castanon Cruz continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 37 points. That makes it ten consecutive games in which she has scored at least a third of Mulberry's points. Another player making a difference was Alana Standifer, who scored 11 points.
Meanwhile, everything came up roses for Lakeland Christian at home against Frostproof on Thursday as the team secured a 45-13 win. The win was just what Lakeland Christian needed coming off of a 57-24 loss in their prior game.
Lakeland Christian's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Issa Simpson led the charge by scoring eight points along with seven steals and six rebounds. Collette Zavada was another key contributor, scoring ten points along with two steals.
Mulberry has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 8-2 record this season. As for Lakeland Christian, their victory bumped their record up to 10-4.
Everything came up roses for Mulberry against Lakeland Christian when the teams last played back in November of 2018 as the team secured a 53-21 win. Will Mulberry repeat their success, or does Lakeland Christian have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
