Basketball Recap: Normal West Takes a Loss

Normal West was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their third straight loss. They fell 64-52 to the Centennial Chargers. While losing is never fun, the Wildcats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 477th, while the Chargers are ranked 146th).

When it comes to explaining why Normal West lost, don't look at Maliq Givens-Smith. Despite the final result, he went 8 of 14 en route to 23 points and three steals. Those 23 points gave Givens-Smith a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Chase Sennett, who posted 12 points.

Normal West's defeat dropped their record down to 3-13. As for Centennial, the win was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 7-7.

Normal West will head out to face off against Champaign Central at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. As for Centennial, they wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next contest, a 59-52 victory against Glenwood on the 11th.