The Fort Wayne Snider Panthers and the Kokomo Wildkats will face off at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday without much rest having both just played. The two teams are strolling into their matches after big wins in their previous games.
Fort Wayne Snider is headed into the contest after thoroughly thrashing Fort Wayne Northrop: they outscored them in every quarter. Everything went Fort Wayne Snider's way against Fort Wayne Northrop on Friday as Fort Wayne Snider made off with a 75-49 win. With the Panthers ahead 34-13 at the half, the game was all but over already.
| 01/10/25 @ Fort Wayne Northrop | 24 |
| 12/20/24 vs Fort Wayne North Side | 21 |
| 12/21/24 @ Elkhart | 19 |
| 01/02/25 vs Mishawaka Marian | 16 |
| 01/02/25 vs Avon | 16 |
Fort Wayne Snider's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Xavier Wilson, who went 6 of 7 from beyond the arc en route to 24 points. The dominant performance gave Wilson a new career-high in points. Another player making a difference was Qualyn Clopton, who almost dropped a double-double on 15 points and nine rebounds.
Fort Wayne Snider was working as a unit and finished the game with 14 assists. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their assist total in three consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Kokomo). They blew past Logansport 106-45 on Friday. The Wildkats have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won five contests by 20 points or more this season.
Fort Wayne Snider better keep an eye on Zion Bellamy. He was instrumental in Kokomo's win, going 6 of 7 from beyond the arc on his way to 22 points in addition to six steals and five assists. With that strong performance, Bellamy is now averaging an impressive 2.1 steals per game. The team also got some help courtesy of Korbyn Hammel, who went 7 for 12 on his way to 18 points and seven assists.
Kokomo's win was their 12th straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 9-2. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 31 points. As for Fort Wayne Snider, they now have a winning record of 6-5.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as Fort Wayne Snider and Kokomo are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Fort Wayne Snider hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 59.3 points per game. However, it's not like Kokomo struggles in that department as they've been averaging 82.5 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Fort Wayne Snider came up short against Kokomo in their previous matchup back in March of 2022, falling 45-40. Can Fort Wayne Snider avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
