Basketball Preview: St. Mary's Lancers vs. Sacred Heart Academy Sharks
St. Mary is 9-1 against the Sharks since February of 2019, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Monday. The St. Mary's Lancers will head out on the road to challenge the Sacred Heart Academy Sharks at 6:00 p.m. Hopefully St. Mary's focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 18 on Saturday.
Last Saturday, St. Mary's faced the Hawks in a battle between two of the state's top teams. St. Mary's fell 57-50 to the Hawks. St. Mary's defeat signaled the end of their three-game winning streak.
Despite the loss, St. Mary's had strong showings from Jada Mushat, who scored 17 points along with six steals and five rebounds, and Emily Mcdonald, who dropped a double-double on 20 points and 11 rebounds. That was a full 40% of St. Mary's points, marking the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Kenzie Owens was another key contributor, scoring 11 points along with three steals.
St. Mary's struggled to work together and finished the game with only four assists. They were crushed by their opponents in that department as Cardinal O'Hara posted 15 assists.
Meanwhile, Sacred Heart Academy pushed their score all the way to 56 on Tuesday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a 65-56 hit to the loss column at the hands of Nichols. While losing is never fun, Sacred Heart Academy can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' New York basketball rankings (they are ranked 159th, while the Vikings are ranked 48th).
St. Mary's record now sits at 11-5. As for Sacred Heart Academy, they have not been sharp recently as the team's lost five of their last six contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 7-9 record this season.
Everything went St. Mary's way against the Sharks in their previous meeting back in January as the Lancers made off with a 66-44 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for St. Mary's since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
