Recap: St. Michael's Crusaders vs. Smithson Valley Rangers
The St. Michael's Crusaders put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They blew past Smithson Valley 83-62. St. Michael's might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team's won eight contests by 20 points or more this season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead St. Michael's to victory, but perhaps none more so than Aiden Disu, who scored 19 points. The match was Disu's fourth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Jake Broxterman, who scored 16 points along with seven rebounds.
Despite the loss, Smithson Valley saw an underclassman step up: Quentin Sampson scored 11 points along with four steals. Sampson hasn't dropped below two steals for three straight games. Jason Cruz was another key contributor, scoring 11 points along with six rebounds.
Even though they lost, Smithson Valley were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with 13 offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
St. Michael's win was their 11th straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 19-0. They've been dominating during the games in that stretch too, as they've won by an average of 20.27 points. As for Smithson Valley, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 6-8.
St. Michael's and Paetow will round out the year against one another at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday at. Paetow has been dominant on offense recently, as they've racked up an incredible 281 points over their last four games. Smithson Valley will wrap up 2023 with a road trip to face off against Wagner at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. Wagner presents a significant challenge as they come into the match much higher ranked than Smithson Valley in Texas (Wagner is ranked 64th, while Smithson Valley is ranked 233rd).
