The Pinecrest Patriots will head out on the road to take on the Richmond Raiders at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Pinecrest's and Scotland's match on Tuesday was close at halftime, but Pinecrest turned on the heat in the second half with 45 points. Pinecrest blew past Scotland 74-46 at home. That 28 point margin sets a new team best for Pinecrest this season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Pinecrest to victory, but perhaps none more so than Azir Gillespie, who scored 20 points along with three steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Gillespie has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Javion Saunders, who scored 23 points along with five rebounds.
Meanwhile, Richmond waltzed into their game on Friday with 11 straight wins but they left with 12. They breezed by Scotland at home to the tune of 104-66. Richmond has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 12 matches by 25 points or more this season.
Richmond relied on the efforts of JV Drake, who scored 26 points along with eight rebounds and three steals, and Paul McNeil Jr., who shot 5-for-11 from downtown and almost dropped a double-double on 40 points and nine rebounds. Drake is on a roll when it comes to steals, as he's now grabbed two or more in the last 12 games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of David McNair, who scored 13 points.
Pinecrest has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a massive bump to their 13-9 record this season. As for Richmond, their victory was their eighth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 19-5.
Pinecrest ended up a good deal behind Richmond when the teams last played back in January, losing 83-68. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of McNeil Jr., who scored 34 points along with five rebounds. Now that Pinecrest knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
