Preview: St. Laurence Vikings vs. St. Francis Spartans
Two dominant in Aaliyah Flores and Riley Austin are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The St. Laurence Vikings's road trip will continue as they head out to face the St. Francis Spartans at 7:00 p.m. on November 30th. Hopefully St. Laurence focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 23 last Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, St. Laurence narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past Rich Township 54-51. Given St. Laurence's advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 22nd, while Rich Township is ranked 101st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
It was another big night for Kathleen Martin, who scored 18 points along with 6 steals. Martin is absolutely dominating the steal category: she's posted at least two every time she's taken the court this season. Sara Burzycki was another key contributor, scoring 10 points along with 5 steals.
Aurora Central Catholic typically have all the answers at home, but on Tuesday St. Francis proved too difficult a challenge. St. Francis came out on top against Aurora Central Catholic by a score of 66-55. The victory made it back-to-back wins for St. Francis.
St. Francis' victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Austin, who scored 22 points. That makes it two consecutive games in which Austin has scored at least 25% of St. Francis' points. Another player making a difference was T?a Rubino, who scored 15 points along with 5 rebounds.
The wins kept both teams' perfect 5-0 season records intact.
Keep an eye on the arc in Thursday's contest: St. Laurence have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 4.4 threes per game. It's a different story for St. Francis, though, as they've been averaging only 7.4 per game. Given St. Laurence's sizeable advantage in that area, St. Francis will need to find a way to close that gap. Come back here after the game to get analysis of the match and other basketball content.
St. Laurence came up short against St. Francis when the teams last played back in January, falling 42-38. Can St. Laurence avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
