The Plainfield Quakers and the Martinsville Artesians will face off at 7:30 p.m. on December 8th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Hopefully Plainfield is not getting complacent, as they presents a significant challenge as they come into the match much higher ranked than Martinsville in Indiana (Plainfield is ranked 29th, while Martinsville is ranked 199th).
Plainfield unfortunately witnessed the end of their three-game winning streak on Saturday. They fell just short of Carmel by a score of 44-42.
Despite the loss, Plainfield saw an underclassman step up: Noah Smith scored 13 points. The game was Smith's fourth in a row with at least ten points. Harper Baker-lands was another key contributor, scoring 9 points along with 5 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Martinsville suffered a rough 66-40 loss at the hands of Columbus North on Saturday. Martinsville has struggled against Columbus North recently, as their contest on Saturday was their eighth consecutive lost matchup.
Despite the defeat, Martinsville had strong showings from Jace Lafary, who scored 11 points along with 7 assists, and Grady Gardner, who scored 11 points. Gardner scored a full 27.5% of Martinsville's points, the third time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Hunter Stroud, who scored 7 points.
Their wins bumped Plainfield to 3-1 and Carmel to 2-1.
Keep an eye on the arc in Friday's game: Plainfield have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 6 threes per game. However, it's not like Martinsville struggles in that department as they've been averaging only 8.3 per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out. Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more basketball content.
Everything went Plainfield's way against Martinsville in their previous matchup back in December of 2022 as Plainfield made off with a 66-43 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Plainfield since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
