Basketball Game Preview: St. Anthony Yellowjackets vs. Central Catholic Buttons

The St. Anthony Yellowjackets will wrap up 2024 with a road trip to face off against the Central Catholic Buttons at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Central Catholic took a loss in their last match and will be looking to turn the tables on St. Anthony, who comes in off a win.

Last Saturday, the stars were shining brightly for St. Anthony in a 68-49 win over Holy Cross. Given the Yellowjackets' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 225th, while the Knights are ranked 745th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

St. Anthony's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Drew Cristan, who went 10 of 16 on his way to 26 points and three steals. The dominant performance gave Cristan a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Emiliano Henderson, who dropped a double-double on 15 points and 15 boards.

Central Catholic has been a dominant force so far, but they're in the middle of a mini-slump at the moment. They were one points away from ending the streak, but they lost a 56-55 heartbreaker at the hands of O'Connor.

St. Anthony has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 12 of their last 14 games, which provided a nice bump to their 25-6 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 66.7 points per game. As for Central Catholic, their loss dropped their record down to 15-5.

St. Anthony came up short against Central Catholic in their previous meeting back in December of 2023, falling 75-66. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Central Catholic's Tristan Garza, who went 7 of 12 on his way to 22 points along with five assists and three steals. Now that St. Anthony knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.