The Milton Panthers will be playing in front of their home fans against the Niceville Eagles at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Hopefully Milton focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up ten on Thursday.
Milton pushed their score all the way to 57, but even that wasn't enough to win. They were just a bucket shy of victory and fell 58-57 to Niceville.
Despite their defeat, Milton saw several players rise to the challenge and make noteworthy plays. Treymar Jones, who scored 18 points along with five rebounds and two steals, was perhaps the best of all. Mateo Robinson was another key contributor, scoring 14 points along with six rebounds and two blocks.
Milton has been struggling recently as they've lost three of their last four matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 18-6 record this season. As for Niceville, the victory (which was their eighth in a row) raised their record to 15-11.
Thursday's game is shaping up to be a masterclass in shooting: Milton have been dynamite from deep this season, having made 43.3% of their threes per game. However, it's not like Niceville struggles in that department as they've made 39.4% of their threes this season. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Milton and Niceville were neck-and-neck in their previous meeting on Thursday, but Milton came up empty-handed after a 58-57 defeat. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Niceville's Anwar Conley, who shot 4-for-4 from downtown and almost dropped a double-double on 24 points and nine rebounds. Now that Milton knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
