Basketball Game Preview: Wayne Pioneers vs. St. Joseph Central Irish

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Previous Games

02/09/24 - Away	66-62 W
01/09/23 - Home	77-52 W
04/08/21 - Away	60-50 W
03/25/21 - Home	67-59 W
01/14/20 - Home	59-61 L
+ 3 more games

Wayne and St. Joseph Central are an even 4-4 against one another since January of 2017, but not for long. The Wayne Pioneers will host the St. Joseph Central Irish 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.

Wayne is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of West Virginia's top teams: Chapmanville Regional, who was ranked 17th at the time (Wayne was ranked 22nd). Wayne was beaten by Chapmanville Regional 91-59 on Tuesday. The Pioneers were in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 52-23.

Meanwhile, St. Joseph Central entered their tilt with Buffalo on Saturday with two consecutive wins , and they'll enter their next game with three. They walked away with a 62-49 victory over the Bison.

Wayne's defeat ended a six-game streak of away wins and brought them to 14-4. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 78.8 points over those games. As for St. Joseph Central, they pushed their record up to 10-7 with the win, which was their fourth straight at home.

Wayne didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against St. Joseph Central in their previous meeting back in February of 2024, but they still walked away with a 66-62 victory. Will Wayne repeat their success, or does St. Joseph Central have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.