The Parrish Community Bulls will wrap up 2023 with a road trip to face off against the Palm Harbor University Hurricanes at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Parrish Community meant business on Tuesday, getting buckets from all over the court against a Hurricanes squad that has allowed just 29.82 points per contest. Everything went Parrish Community's way against Manatee as Parrish Community made off with a 60-38 win. Given Parrish Community's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 111th, while Manatee is ranked 357th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Parrish Community to victory, but perhaps none more so than Mary Portwood, who dropped a double-double on 12 points and ten rebounds. Portwood set a new season high mark in assists with seven. The team also got some help courtesy of Sarah Decker, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 17 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Palm Harbor University had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 24.5 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They breezed by Tarpon Springs on the road to the tune of 62-18. Considering Palm Harbor University has won three matches by more than 27 points this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Parrish Community pushed their record up to 6-3 with that victory, which was their fourth straight on the road. As for Palm Harbor University, their victory bumped their record up to 6-4.
