Basketball Game Preview: St. Joseph Academy Jaguars vs. Norwalk Truckers

The St. Joseph Academy Jaguars and the Norwalk Truckers will round out the year against one another at at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with St. Joseph Academy sitting on three straight victories and Norwalk on eight.

St. Joseph Academy is headed into the matchup after thoroughly thrashing Lutheran West: they outscored them in every quarter. St. Joseph Academy came out on top against Lutheran West by a score of 56-43 on Saturday. Given the Jaguars' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 101st, while the Longhorns are ranked 470th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Melanie Alvarenga had a dynamite game for St. Joseph Academy, almost dropping a double-double on nine assists and 13 steals. Alvarenga has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last three times she's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Morgan Wearsch, who went 8 of 16 on her way to 20 points and six boards.

St. Joseph Academy smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 11 offensive boards in three consecutive games.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Norwalk). They simply couldn't be stopped on Saturday as they easily beat Clay 70-30. The Truckers have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won three contests by 29 points or more this season.

St. Joseph Academy is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 5-3 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.0 points per game. As for Norwalk, they pushed their record up to 8-0 with the win, which was their eighth straight on the road dating back to last season.