Basketball Game Preview: O'Fallon Panthers vs. Taylorville Tornadoes

The O'Fallon Panthers will venture away from home to square off against the Taylorville Tornadoes at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

O'Fallon is headed into the contest after thoroughly thrashing Highland: they outscored them in every quarter. O'Fallon took down Highland 56-41 on Wednesday. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 27th, while the Bulldogs are ranked 119th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Taylorville had already won five in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 24.2 points) and they went ahead and made it six on Thursday. They walked away with a 41-31 win over the Cyclones.

O'Fallon is on a roll lately: they've won 12 of their last 15 games, which provided a nice bump to their 21-9 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 57.3 points over those games. As for Taylorville, they pushed their record up to 18-9 with the victory, which was their ninth straight at home.

Everything came up roses for O'Fallon against Taylorville in their previous matchup back in January of 2020, as the team secured a 55-17 win. Does O'Fallon have another victory up their sleeve, or will Taylorville turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.