After flying high against the Discovery Spartans last Friday, the Lakeland Christian Vikings came back down to earth. Lakeland Christian fell 70-57 to Mulberry on Tuesday. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
Lakeland Christian's loss came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Eleni Katzaras, who scored 16 points along with five rebounds and two steals. Another player making a difference was Issa Simpson, who scored 16 points along with seven rebounds.
Lorianys Castanon Cruz was her usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 60 points and ten steals for Mulberry. That makes it 11 consecutive games in which Castanon Cruz has scored at least a third of Mulberry's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Alana Standifer, who scored four points along with 11 rebounds and two steals.
Lakeland Christian's defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 11-5. As for Mulberry, the win (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 9-2.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Lakeland Christian will face off against McKeel Academy at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. McKeel Academy has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games. As for Mulberry, they will head out on the road to face off against Discovery at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Discovery 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 613th, while Mulberry is ranked 256th).
