Basketball Recap: Everglades' Victory on Monday Extends Winning Streak to Four

Everglades came tearing into Monday's game with three straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 22 points) and they left with even more momentum. It was close, but they capped 2024 with a 69-67 win over the Martin County Cardinals. 69 seems to be a good number for the Gators as the team scooped up a victory with the same number of points in their previous game.

Leading Everglades to victory were Lance Bailey, Jr and Chris Payoutte. Bailey, Jr went 7 for 11 on his way to 14 points in addition to five rebounds and four steals, while Payoutte went 6 of 13 on his way to 17 points and eight rebounds. The dominant performance gave Payoutte a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Nathan Rey, who went 5 of 12 on his way to 12 points.

Everglades smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 13 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least nine offensive rebounds in six consecutive matches.

Everglades has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven contests, which provided a massive bump to their 9-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 64.0 points per game. As for Martin County, they moved to 10-2 with that loss, which also ended their seven-game winning streak.

Everglades will get to enjoy the win for a while: their next game is against Stranahan at 7:30 p.m. on January 9th. As for Martin County, they will square off against Johnson Central at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Martin County knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past 12 games -- so hopefully Johnson Central likes a good challenge.