A feisty cat fight is on tap when the Martin County Tigers challenge the Impact Christian Academy Lions at 6:30 p.m. on Friday... Both teams are coming into the game red-hot, with Martin County sitting on 16 straight wins and Impact Christian Academy on five.
Last Tuesday, Martin County beat Treasure Coast 71-61. Given the Tigers' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 22nd, while the Titans are ranked 162nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Kerry Parks
| 01/14/25 @ Treasure Coast | 21 |
| 12/20/24 vs True North Classical Academy | 17 |
| 01/03/25 @ Wharton | 16 |
| 01/01/25 vs Southwest Florida Christian | 15 |
| 12/13/24 vs NSU University | 15 |
Martin County can attribute much of their success to Brandon Brazell, who went 7 of 12 en route to 18 points, and Kerry Parks, who went 6 for 13 on his way to 21 points. Those 21 points gave Parks a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Ari Smith, who almost dropped a double-double on ten rebounds and nine assists.
Meanwhile, Impact Christian Academy earned a 62-50 victory over North Florida Educational Institute on Wednesday.
Impact Christian Academy's win came from a few key players Martin County will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Jeremiah Jones, who posted 13 points. He continues to improve, besting his previous point total in each of the last four games he's played. Chris Jackson was another key player, putting up 13 points.
Impact Christian Academy has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 12-4 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 65.9 points per game. As for Martin County, their win was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 16-0.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as Martin County and Impact Christian Academy are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Martin County hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 74.2 points per game. However, it's not like Impact Christian Academy struggles in that department as they've been averaging 63.8 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Martin County beat Impact Christian Academy 59-46 in their previous matchup back in December of 2016. The rematch might be a little tougher for Martin County since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
