The Sebring Blue Streaks will head out on the road to challenge the Braden River Pirates at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. Sebring knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with flashy point totals in its past five contests -- so hopefully Braden River likes a good challenge.
It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Sebring had no problem doing just that on Thursday. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past the Green Devils 63-61. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Sebring's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Sylvester Lewis led the charge by scoring 13 points along with eight rebounds and seven blocks. Lewis hasn't dropped below two blocks for 20 straight games. Another player making a difference was Kj Turner, who scored 15 points along with six assists and two steals.
Meanwhile, Braden River had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 14.5 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They blew past Parrish Community, posting a 80-50 win on the road. Given Braden River's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 132nd, while Parrish Community is ranked 274th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Sebring's victory was their fifth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 18-8. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 77.0 points per game. As for Braden River, they have been performing well recently as they've won seven of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 17-8 record this season.
