The Matanzas Pirates pushed their score all the way to 58 on Friday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a 62-58 hit to the loss column at the hands of Oakleaf. Matanzas has struggled against Oakleaf recently, as their match on Friday was their sixth consecutive lost matchup.
Alexander Davis and Rya'sir Jefferson certainly did their best on Friday to try and avoid the loss. Davis dropped a double-double on 19 points and 15 rebounds, while Jefferson scored 23 points along with eight assists and four steals. Jefferson hasn't dropped below two steals for nine straight games. Another player making a difference was Malik Murray, who scored six points along with six rebounds and two steals.
Matanzas' loss dropped their record down to 8-11. As for Oakleaf, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 13-5 record this season.
Matanzas won't have much time to rest: their next game is against Cocoa at 4:30 p.m. on January 20th. Cocoa is no doubt hoping to put an end to a four-game streak of away losses. As for Oakleaf, they will head out on the road to take on Bradford at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Bradford will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Florida Rankings (they are ranked 570th, while Oakleaf is ranked 110th).
