Basketball Game Preview: St. Joseph's Catholic Knights vs. Powdersville Patriots

The St. Joseph's Catholic Knights will venture away from home to face off against the Powdersville Patriots at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with St. Joseph's Catholic sitting on five straight victories and Powdersville on ten.

Last Tuesday, St. Joseph's Catholic didn't have too much trouble with Carolina Academy as they won 47-28. Given the Knights' advantage in MaxPreps' South Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 70th, while the Trojans are ranked 292nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Powdersville humbled Southside Christian with an 85-50 victory. The Patriots have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won seven matchups by 20 points or more this season.

St. Joseph's Catholic better focus on containing Quan Burton and Von Burton as the pair were huge in Powdersville's win. Quan went 10 of 11 en route to 26 points and five steals, while Von went 8 for 19 on his way to 22 points and seven boards. The game was Von's third in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Jaleel McGee, who posted seven points along with seven assists and seven rebounds.

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

Powdersville is on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 12 matches, which provided a massive bump to their 15-8 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 74.2 points per game. As for St. Joseph's Catholic, they pushed their record up to 13-5 with the win, which was their third straight at home.

St. Joseph's Catholic came up short against Powdersville in their previous meeting back in January, falling 57-48. Can St. Joseph's Catholic avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.