The Pine Ridge Panthers and the Hawthorne Hornets will face off at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday without much rest having both just played. Pine Ridge has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the matchup with three straight defeats, while Hawthorne will come in with three straight victories.
On Friday, Pine Ridge was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap as they fell 73-67 to Atlantic. While losing is never fun, the Panthers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 429th, while the Sharks are ranked 115th).
Meanwhile, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Hawthorne beat Bell Creek Academy 66-60 on Friday.
Hawthorne's win came from a few key players Pine Ridge will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Dacarion Debose, who posted 14 points and three steals. He is on a roll when it comes to steals, as he's now grabbed two or more in the last eight games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Kelvin Baker, who went 5 for 8 en route to 13 points.
Hawthorne was working as a unit and finished the game with 14 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in February of 2024.
Hawthorne's win bumped their record up to 11-2. As for Pine Ridge, their loss dropped their record down to 6-13.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
