The Cathedral Fighting Irish will head out to face off against the Guerin Catholic Golden Eagles at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Cathedral has insisted on making their lastthree contests complete nail-biters, turning in a record of 2-1 during that stretch of close contests.
Cathedral's upcoming game probably won't be as stressful as their last, when they took on another nationally ranked opponent: Great Crossing, who was ranked 57th at the time (Cathedral was ranked 75th). Cathedral was just a bucket shy of victory on Saturday and fell 89-88 to Great Crossing. One positive for the Fighting Irish, at least, is that this was the most points they've scored all season.
Despite their loss, Cathedral saw several players rise to the challenge and make noteworthy plays. Brady Koehler, who went 7 for 13 on his way to 18 points in addition to five assists and five boards, was perhaps the best of all. The team also got some help courtesy of Aidan Hughes, who made all 6 shots he took to post 12 points and three steals.
Meanwhile, Guerin Catholic entered their tilt with Heritage Christian on Saturday with five consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with six. They strolled past the Eagles with points to spare, taking the game 63-46.
Cathedral better focus on containing Bryson Cardinal and Jake Grissom as the pair were huge in Guerin Catholic's win. Cardinal posted 25 points and five rebounds, while Grissom went 8 of 15 on his way to 22 points and five rebounds. That makes it five consecutive games in which Cardinal has scored at least a third of Guerin Catholic's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Ryne Paris, who had six points in addition to five boards and three steals.
Guerin Catholic has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine matches, which provided a nice bump to their 12-2 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 64.2 points per game. As for Cathedral, they moved to 9-3 with that defeat, which also ended their eight-game winning streak.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Cathedral has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 28.2 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Guerin Catholic struggles in that department as they've been averaging 27.6 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Cathedral and Guerin Catholic were neck-and-neck in their previous matchup back in January of 2024, but Cathedral came up empty-handed after a 48-47 loss. Can Cathedral avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
