Basketball Recap: Metro-East Lutheran Falls Despite Big Games from Junior Brown and Thijson Heard

Metro-East Lutheran's tournament run continued when they took on Waterloo on Monday. The Metro-East Lutheran Knights lost 66-43 to the Waterloo Bulldogs. While losing is never fun, the Knights can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 211th, while the Bulldogs are ranked 85th).

Despite the defeat, Metro-East Lutheran had strong showings from Thijson Heard, who went 6 for 13 en route to 16 points, and Junior Brown, who posted nine points. Heard has been hot, having posted 15 or more points the last six times he's played. Ian Skelton was another key player, putting up two points.

It was another big night for Alex Stell, who almost dropped a double-double on 23 points and nine rebounds for Waterloo. That makes it eight consecutive games in which Stell has scored at least a third of Waterloo's points. Another player making a difference was Tyler Devilder, who had 11 points and four steals.

Metro-East Lutheran has been struggling recently as they've lost six of their last eight matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 10-7 record this season. As for Waterloo, they moved to 15-5 with that victory, which also ended their three-game losing streak.

Metro-East Lutheran wasted no time getting back out on the court and has already played their next game, a 47-30 loss against Mater Dei on the 22nd. As for Waterloo, they also didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next contest, a 43-39 win against Nashville on the 24th.