Preview: Cathedral Fighting Irish vs. Ben Davis Giants
The Cathedral Fighting Irish will head out on the road to face off against the Ben Davis Giants at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Saturday, Cathedral earned a 70-61 win over Franklin Central. Given Cathedral's advantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked sixth, while Franklin Central is ranked 45th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Cathedral can attribute much of their success to Sheldon Gatlin, who scored 16 points along with two blocks, and Keaton Aldridge, who scored 25 points along with two steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Aldridge has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Aidan Hughes, who scored eight points along with five rebounds.
Meanwhile, Ben Davis waltzed into their game on Friday with four straight wins but they left with five. They walked away with a 60-53 win over Lawrence North.
Cathedral's win was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 15-4. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 81.0 points per game. As for Ben Davis, they are on a roll lately: they've won 12 of their last 14 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 15-4 record this season.
Cathedral came up short against Ben Davis in their previous matchup back in March of 2023, falling 63-53. Can Cathedral avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
