Basketball Game Preview: Grand Island Central Catholic Crusaders vs. Aquinas Monarchs

Grand Island Central Catholic has gone 8-2 against Aquinas recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Grand Island Central Catholic Crusaders will venture away from home to face off against the Aquinas Monarchs at 7:30 p.m. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Grand Island Central Catholic comes in on nine and Aquinas on four.

Grand Island Central Catholic is headed into the game after thoroughly thrashing York: they outscored them in every quarter. Grand Island Central Catholic enjoyed a cozy 66-51 win over York on Tuesday. Given the Crusaders' advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 14th, while the Dukes are ranked 147th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Grand Island Central Catholic's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Thomas Liban, who went 8 of 14 on his way to 19 points and eight steals. Those eight steals gave Liban a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Connor Haney, who made all 6 shots he took racking up 14 points and three steals.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Aquinas). They took down Twin River 65-48 on Tuesday.

Grand Island Central Catholic pushed their record up to 11-2 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 64.3 points per game. As for Aquinas, they are on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-5 record this season.

Grand Island Central Catholic didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Aquinas in their previous meeting back in January of 2024, but they still walked away with a 56-51 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Grand Island Central Catholic since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.