Basketball Game Preview: Holy Cross Knights vs. St. Francis Episcopal Wolves

The Holy Cross Knights will face off against the St. Francis Episcopal Wolves at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

St. Francis Episcopal will be up against a hot Holy Cross squad: the team just extended their winning streak to 11. Holy Cross claimed a resounding 69-41 win over New Braunfels Christian Academy. The Knights pushed the score to 52-26 by the end of the third, a deficit the Wildcats had little chance of recovering from.

Meanwhile, it's playoff time, and St. Francis Episcopal had no trouble coming through when it counted. They simply couldn't be stopped on Tuesday as they easily beat Incarnate Word Academy 66-27. Given the Wolves' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 41st, while the Angels are ranked 699th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

St. Francis Episcopal's win came from a few key players Holy Cross will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Christian Hodge, who almost dropped a double-double with nine points and 12 boards. He has been hot recently, having also posted two or more steals the last four times he's played. Nigel Walls was another key player, going 5-for-7 to rack up 13 points.

St. Francis Episcopal smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 12 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive boards in nine consecutive contests.

St. Francis Episcopal is on a roll lately: they've won 15 of their last 16 games, which provided a nice bump to their 27-8 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 76.9 points over those games. As for Holy Cross, they pushed their record up to 18-14 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home.