Three preseason basketball games were played at Eastside High School Tuesday Night. The night started with the Santa Fe Raiders routing the Hawthorne Hornets 70-40(ish). Then the Newberry Panthers downed the Buchholz Bobcats 61-44, in a game that got out of hand late. To close out Night 1, the Saint Francis Wolves upset the Eastside Rams in their own house, 49-45. The preseason action will be halted for a day and then Thursday will feature three more games as Santa Fe plays Saint Francis, Buchholz plays Hawthorne, and Eastside plays Newberry on Night 2.
Buchholz vs Newberry
The Bobcats and Panthers came into the night very familiar with each other already, not only did the two teams meet up last season, where Buchholz narrowly escaped with a 55-53 victory, but both teams feature multiple starters who play on the same summer ball team. The RSE Gainesville Stampede, who compete on the Puma NXT Circuit for the Class of 2026, was the summer team for 5 of the 10 total starters in the game. Newberry’s Henry Matthias and Juwan Scippio and Buchholz’s Lucas Bhatia, Jamison McTureous, and Ezra Olmedo. Buchholz will gain another Stampede player in the coming weeks when they add Evan Walker who still has an obligation to the Bobcats Football Team currently. Lucas Bhatia and Henry Matthias traded blows as they guarded each other on both ends of the court the entire night, the trading of blows ended up with both of the Junior Guards leading their team in points, 14 and 18 respectively. While Bhatia and Matthias handled the scoring for their teams, Forwards Juwan Scippio and Jamison McTureous played key defense while also chipping in with a bit of scoring, Scippio with a single 3-pointer made and McTureous a nice 7 points, which all came in the second half. Ezra Olmedo excelled in the realm of scoring as well, coming off a nice 10 point performance in Buchholz’s Black & Gold Game, he repeated the effort tonight with 9 points to his name.
It wasn’t just players from Gainesville Stampede who made noise in the game though. One of Buchholz’s biggest contributors was Sophomore Forward Jacob Bromirski, who tied Olmedo for second in scoring on the Bobcats with 9. Bromirski was also a huge factor on the glass for Buchholz and while I don’t have the exact number of rebounds for him, it would not be surprising if he reached double digit boards in the game. Senior Peyton Warring was held scoreless by the Panthers defense, but he was very active in the game as a playmaker and had some nice flashy passes. Newberry also had a number of players who had key performances in their 17 point win. Seniors Jacob Green and Malachi Meachum scored 16 points and 7 points respectively, while Junior Kai Washington had 10 points, 6 of them coming in the Panthers’ 21 point 1st quarter that got them out to an early lead.
Stat Leaders & Some Game Stats
I sadly did not track any stats other than points & 3 pointers, but I do have some team stats I can share.
Points – Henry Matthias(18), Jacob Green(16), Lucas Bhatia(14)
3 Pointers Made – Henry Matthias(3), Jacob Bromirski(2)
Team Turnovers – Buchholz(11), Newberry(10)
Team Fouls – Buchholz(4), Newberry(13)
Players W/ Points – Buchholz(5), Newberry(8)
Team 3 Pointers Made – Buchholz(4), Newberry(6)
