By Kyle Coppola
High School Basketball Game Of The Week: Eustis @ Leesburg
The Eustis Panthers have a big matchup tonight against Leesburg. These two teams played right before the winter break, and it was a thriller that saw the Panthers come out on top.
Tonight, the Yellow Jackets look to get some revenge after a game that saw Leesburg score a season low of just 46 points. At no other point has Leesburg failed to score over 54 points in a game so that tells you how good the Eustis defense is this year.
Eustis is led by junior #1 Anthony Hines who is having a tremendous year. Hines is averaging 16 points per game, and he gets help from senior #3 Jayveon Dale who is also averaging 16 points per game. Between the two of them, they average about 32+ points per game as an average so they are on fire this year.
Jayveon Dale is one of the better defenders in Lake County. He has 13 steals to his credit. Meanwhile its junior #4 Cornelius Hines who has 24 blocks this season. The 6”5 junior has impressed everyone with his abilities to defend under the hoop and he gave Leesburg a lot of trouble the last time around.
Leesburg shines in fast break opportunities and they have some big bodies with Kanye Gaines the 6”5 senior who is committed to Western Kentucky for football, and 6”8 Jermarien Williams who has been explosive this year. If Eustis can stop the big men from having an advantage under the basket that will force Leesburg to shoot from the perimeter.
Leesburg will want to make the most of their offensive possessions in this upcoming game. If Leesburg can get off to a good start and settle in early, then they have a good chance for a home win. Eustis will need to contend with an opponent who they just played and is very familiar with them. Leesburg will not want to drop a second game against Eustis so they will be fired up and ready to roll.
This will be a terrific matchup and if you are in the area and like basketball, this is certainly our game of the week in Lake County. Best luck to both programs.
Photo Credit – Joe Ott Photography “Fan Zone”
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
