With a playoff game on the line, the Rockledge Raiders rose to the challenge on Saturday. Everything went their way against the Jaguars as they made off with a 88-66 win. Rockledge has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 12 games by 20 points or more this season.
Ryan Blount was his usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 42 points and 12 rebounds. That makes it five consecutive games in which he has scored at least a third of Rockledge's points. Terrence Shannon was another key contributor, scoring 22 points along with six rebounds and three steals.
Defeat or not, Port St. Lucie got some senior leadership from Ryan Rodriguez and Makhari Chambliss. Rodriguez scored 30 points along with five rebounds, while Chambliss. scored 23 points. That was a full 45.5% of Port St. Lucie's points, marking the third time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Javien Sapienza, who scored nine points.
The victory (which was Rockledge's fifth in a row) raised their record to 21-7. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 81.4 points per game. As for Port St. Lucie, their defeat dropped their record down to 20-8.
Rockledge is on the road again on Thursday and plays Northwestern at 7:00 p.m. on February 15th. Rockledge knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with flashy point totals in its past five matchups -- so hopefully Northwestern likes a good challenge. Port St. Lucie does not have any more games scheduled as of now.
