Basketball Game Preview: North Mac Panthers vs. Auburn Trojans

The North Mac Panthers will head out on the road to square off against the Auburn Trojans at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. North Mac is coming into the contest on a five-game losing streak.

North Mac managed to keep up with Nokomis until halftime on Thursday, but things quickly went downhill from there. North Mac lost 76-52 to Nokomis. While losing is never fun, the Panthers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 420th, while the Redskins are ranked 150th).

Meanwhile, you're bound to get a positive result if you outscore your opponent every quarter, and that's exactly how it played out for Auburn on Thursday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that they blew Riverton out of the water with a 68-22 final score. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 36-6.

Auburn's win bumped their record up to 16-14. As for North Mac, their defeat dropped their record down to 11-19.

North Mac came up short against Auburn in their previous meeting back in November of 2024, falling 57-44. Can North Mac avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.