Basketball Game Preview: North Central Knights vs. Anselmo-Merna Coyotes

North Central and Anselmo-Merna are an even 4-4 against one another since January of 2015, but not for long. The North Central Knights just played last yesterday, but they'll still welcome the Anselmo-Merna Coyotes at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

On Thursday, North Central needed a bit of extra time to put away Ainsworth. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 50-48 win over the Bulldogs. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Knights.

Meanwhile, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Anselmo-Merna beat Sumner-Eddyville-Miller 51-46 on Tuesday.

Anselmo-Merna found their leader in sophomore Dane Duryea, who went 6 of 13 en route to 19 points along with six rebounds and four blocks. That makes it nine consecutive games in which Duryea has scored at least a third of Anselmo-Merna's points. Josiah Griffith was another key player, putting up nine points.

Anselmo-Merna has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four games, which provided a massive bump to their 6-8 record this season. As for North Central, their victory bumped their record up to 4-10.

North Central was able to grind out a solid win over Anselmo-Merna when the teams last played back in January of 2024, winning 44-33. Will North Central repeat their success, or does Anselmo-Merna have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.