Basketball Game Preview: Champaign Central Maroons vs. MacArthur Generals

The Champaign Central Maroons will take on the MacArthur Generals at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.

Champaign Central is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Wednesday. They walked away with a 64-53 victory over Centennial. Given the Maroons' advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 103rd in Illinois, while the Chargers are ranked 231st in Illinois), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Chris Bush

Points

02/26/25 @ Centennial	31
01/17/25 @ Centennial	27
12/05/24 @ Richwoods	24
01/31/25 vs Manual	23
01/24/25 vs Centralia	22
+ 23 more games

Chris Bush was his usual excellent self, going 11-for-16 en route to 31 points and five boards. Champaign Central is 12-6 when Bush posts 15 or more points, but 4-6 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of David Hasenstab, who went 5-for-8 to rack up 10 points.

Meanwhile, MacArthur had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 7.5 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Wednesday. They claimed a resounding 83-51 win over the Tigers.

MacArthur's victory bumped their record up to 24-8. As for Champaign Central, their win ended a three-game drought on the road and puts them at 16-12.

Champaign Central came up short against MacArthur when the teams last played back in January, falling 64-51. Can Champaign Central avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.