Basketball Game Preview: Maine East Blue Demons vs. Niles West Wolves

Maine East hasn't had much luck against Niles West recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Maine East Blue Demons will head out to take on the Niles West Wolves at 6:30 p.m. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.

Maine East came up into this matchup off a tough 23-point defeat on Friday. This time they kept things ultra-competitive, but unfortunately the final result was the same. They fell just short of Hoffman Estates by a score of 63-60 on Tuesday. While losing is never fun, the Blue Demons can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 426th, while the Hawks are ranked 148th).

Meanwhile, Niles West was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their third straight loss. They took a hard 69-54 fall against Maine South.

This is the second loss in a row for Maine East and nudges their season record down to 7-19. Those losses can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 55.5 points over those games. As for Niles West, their defeat dropped their record down to 9-19.

Maine East was able to grind out a solid victory over Niles West in their previous matchup back in January, winning 61-53. The rematch might be a little tougher for Maine East since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.