Basketball Game Preview: Arcola Purple Riders vs. Marshall Lions

Arcola hasn't had much luck against Marshall recently, but that could start to change on Saturday. The Arcola Purple Riders will be playing in front of their home fans against the Marshall Lions at 10:00 a.m. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Marshall will be up against a hot Arcola team: the squad just extended their winning streak to four. Arcola really took it to Blue Ridge/DeLand-Weldon for the full four quarters, racking up a 57-23 victory. With the Purple Riders ahead 39-11 at the half, the match was all but over already.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Marshall). They blew past Oblong/Hutsonville/Palestine 64-22 on Tuesday. Given the Lions' advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 269th, while Oblong/Hutsonville/Palestine are ranked 546th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Marshall's win bumped their record up to 13-11. As for Arcola, they have also been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 16-8 record this season.

Arcola didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Marshall when the teams last played back in January of 2023, but they still walked away with a 45-41 victory. Will Arcola repeat their success, or does Marshall have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.