Basketball Game Preview: Lincoln Lions vs. Centennial Stars

The Lincoln Lions just played yesterday, but they'll still head out to face the Centennial Stars at 1:45 p.m. on Saturday. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Lincoln is headed into the game after thoroughly thrashing Central Crossing: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Lincoln blew Central Crossing out of the water with a 62-26 final score. Given the Lions' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 138th, while the Comets are ranked 441st), the result on Friday wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Centennial came tearing into Friday's matchup with seven straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 38.6 points) and they left with even more momentum. They blew past the Punchers 78-8. The contest was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Stars had established a 63 point advantage.

Centennial's win came from a few key players Lincoln will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Aza Corbett, who dropped a double-double on 20 points and 18 boards. She has been hot, having posted 12 or more rebounds the last eight times she's played. Kayla Houston was another key player, going 13 of 20 on her way to 29 points and five steals.

Centennial 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 eight offensive boards in 32 consecutive games dating back to last season.

Lincoln has been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 10-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 54.4 points per game. As for Centennial, they pushed their record up to 11-1 with the win, which was their 14th straight on the road dating back to last season.