Basketball Game Preview: Mt. Vernon Marauders vs. Decatur Central Hawks

After both having extra time off, the Mt. Vernon Marauders and the Decatur Central Hawks will dust off their jerseys to challenge one another at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.

Mt. Vernon will bounce into Wednesday's match after beating Crown Point, who they had gone 0-3 against in their three prior meetings. Everything went Mt. Vernon's way against Crown Point last Saturday as Mt. Vernon made off with a 58-37 victory. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Marauders.

Zoey Wood and Gabby Thomas were among the main playmakers for Mt. Vernon as the former went 8 for 13 on her way to 20 points in addition to seven assists and six boards and the latter went 6 of 10 on her way to 16 points and six steals. With that strong performance, Thomas is now averaging an impressive 2.2 steals per game. The team also got some help courtesy of Alaya Baxter, who went 5 of 12 on her way to 11 points.

They weren't the only one working in the assists department: Mt. Vernon was working as a unit and finished the game with 16 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Crown Point only racked up five assists.

Meanwhile, Decatur Central was not able to break out of their rough patch last Saturday as the team picked up their third straight defeat. They fell 72-65 to Silver Creek. While losing is never fun, the Hawks can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 217th, while the Dragons are ranked 15th).

Mt. Vernon is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 12-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 51.8 points per game. As for Decatur Central, their loss dropped their record down to 4-10.

Mt. Vernon might still be hurting after the 57-32 defeat they got from Decatur Central in their previous meeting back in December of 2023. Will Mt. Vernon have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.