Preview: Centura Centurions vs. Ord Chanticleers
The Centura Centurions will head out on the road to face off against the Ord Chanticleers at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday. Centura is still on the hunt for that elusive first 'W'.
Centura pushed their score all the way to 62 on Tuesday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They were just a bucket shy of victory and fell 63-62 to Central Valley.
Centura's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Cayden Anderson, who scored 22 points, and Barrett Fries who dropped a double-double on 13 points and 16 rebounds. That's the first time this season that Anderson scored 15 or more points. Caden Ruhl was another key contributor, scoring 11 points.
Even though they lost, Centura were working as a unit and finished the game with 15 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Ord struggled with assists on Friday (Kearney Catholic had 11 more) and sadly the final score reflected it. Ord fell 49-40 to Kearney Catholic. The defeat unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Ord in their matchups with Kearney Catholic: they've now lost six in a row.
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Jordan Williams, who scored nine points. He hasn't dropped below two steals for three straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Elijah Pollard, who scored 11 points.
Centura's loss dropped their record down to 0-5. As for Ord, they bumped their record down to 1-3 with that defeat, which was their fourth straight at home dating back to last season.
Keep an eye on the arc in Saturday's match: Centura have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 5.2 threes per game. It's a different story for Ord, though, as they've been averaging only 5 threes per game. Given Centura's sizeable advantage in that area, Ord will need to find a way to close that gap.
Centura strolled past Ord in their previous matchup back in December of 2022 by a score of 51-35. The rematch might be a little tougher for Centura since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
