Preview: Roanoke-Benson Rockets vs. Prairie Central Hawks
The Roanoke-Benson Rockets and the Prairie Central Hawks will round out the year against one another at 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday at. Roanoke-Benson is hoping to put an end to a nine-game streak of away losses dating back to last season.
Last Friday, Roanoke-Benson might have been a little too into the holiday spirit, gifting Flanagan-Cornell an easy 55-32 victory. While losing is never fun, Roanoke-Benson can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 572nd, while Flanagan-Cornell is ranked 211th).
Meanwhile, Prairie Central waltzed into their matchup last Tuesday with three straight wins but they left with four. They came out on top against Peoria Christian by a score of 76-67. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Prairie Central's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Tyler Curl, who scored 24 points along with eight rebounds. That makes it four consecutive games in which Curl has scored at least 25% of Prairie Central's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Levi Goad, who scored 16 points along with eight assists and three steals.
Roanoke-Benson has not been sharp recently, as they've lost seven of their last nine matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 3-9 record this season. As for Prairie Central, they are on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 10-2 record this season.
Roanoke-Benson might still be hurting after the 63-40 loss they got from Prairie Central in their previous matchup back in December of 2021. Can Roanoke-Benson avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
