Basketball Game Preview: St. Mary's Rams vs. Grace Academy

St. Mary hasn't had much luck against Grace Academy recently, but that could start to change on Thursday. The St. Mary's Rams will look to defend their home court against Grace Academy at 6:30 p.m.

St. Mary's is headed into the game out to prove that what happened against Providence Prep on Tuesday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. St. Mary's took a blow against Providence Prep, falling 60-23. St. Mary's was in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 41-14.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Grace Academy). They claimed a resounding 86-34 win over Sterling Classical. Grace Academy has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won seven contests by 28 points or more this season.

Grace Academy is also on a roll lately: they've won ten of their last 11 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 15-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 56.2 points per game. As for St. Mary's, their loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 3-6.

St. Mary's was taken down by Grace Academy 62-19 in their previous meeting two weeks ago. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Grace Academy's Canyon Maxwell, who almost dropped a double-double on 19 points and nine steals. Now that St. Mary's knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.