Preview: St. Anthony Saints vs. Crean Lutheran Saints
The St. Anthony Saints will be staying on the road on Saturday to face off against the Crean Lutheran Saints at 7:00 p.m. on February 10th. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the pair will really light up the scoreboard.
It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but St. Anthony had no problem doing just that on Thursday. They enjoyed a cozy 68-50 win over the Wolfpack. Given St. Anthony's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 20th, while Great Oak is ranked 193rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
St. Anthony's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Ryann Bennett, who scored 20 points along with five assists and three steals. Bennett hasn't dropped below two steals for five straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Melaiah Joseph, who scored 14 points along with four steals.
Meanwhile, Crean Lutheran came tearing into Thursday's contest with ten straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 24.8 points) and they left with even more momentum. They walked away with a 56-43 win over West.
St. Anthony has been performing well recently as they've won nine of their last 11 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 21-7 record this season. As for Crean Lutheran, they pushed their record up to 19-6 with that victory, which was their sixth straight at home.
St. Anthony and Crean Lutheran were neck-and-neck in their previous matchup back in November of 2022, but St. Anthony came up empty-handed after a 50-49 loss. Can St. Anthony avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
