Basketball Game Preview: Austintown-Fitch Falcons vs. Cardinal Mooney Cardinals

The Austintown-Fitch Falcons will take on the Cardinal Mooney Cardinals in a holiday battle at at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Austintown-Fitch is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 65.3 points per game this season.

Last Tuesday, Austintown-Fitch had to suffer through a 87-53 loss at the hands of Ursuline. While losing is never fun, the Falcons can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 344th, while the Fighting Irish are ranked 91st).

Austintown-Fitch might have lost, but man, Ej Giles was a machine: he went 5 for 10 on his way to 15 points in addition to seven rebounds and four steals. With that strong performance, Giles is now averaging an impressive 2.2 steals per game. The team also got some help courtesy of Justyn Glover, who posted eight points and five boards.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Mooney came tearing into Tuesday's match with three straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 25.3 points) and they left with even more momentum. They took down the Wildcats 54-39.

Austintown-Fitch's loss was their third straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 2-4. As for Cardinal Mooney, their victory bumped their record up to 5-1.

Austintown-Fitch skirted past Cardinal Mooney 38-36 in their previous matchup back in December of 2023. Does Austintown-Fitch have another victory up their sleeve, or will Cardinal Mooney turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.