Basketball Preview: Grand Island Central Catholic Crusaders vs. Lexington Minutemen
Grand Island Central Catholic is 8-1 against the Minutemen since February of 2015, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Grand Island Central Catholic Crusaders are on the road again and plays the Lexington Minutemen at 6:00 p.m. on February 2nd. Hopefully Grand Island Central Catholic focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 13 on Tuesday.
Winning is just a little bit easier when you work as a team to rack up 11 more assists than your opponent, a fact Grand Island Central Catholic proved. They took down Aurora 52-35. Given Grand Island Central Catholic's advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked fifth, while the Huskies are ranked 119th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Grand Island Central Catholic's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Carolyn Maser, who almost dropped a double-double on 13 points and nine rebounds. Maser has been hot recently, having posted eight or more rebounds the last eight times she's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Bryndal Moody, who scored 12 points.
Meanwhile, Lexington's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Tuesday after their third straight defeat. They had to suffer through a rough 73-30 loss at the hands of Broken Bow. The loss unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Lexington in their matchups with the Indians: they've now lost five in a row.
Grand Island Central Catholic's win was their fifth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 17-1. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 54.6 points per game. As for Lexington, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-15.
Everything went Grand Island Central Catholic's way against the Minutemen in their previous meeting back in February of 2023 as the Crusaders made off with a 40-20 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Grand Island Central Catholic since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
