Basketball Game Preview: Blue Ridge Barons vs. St. Anne's-Belfield Saints

The Blue Ridge Barons will square off against the St. Anne's-Belfield Saints at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Blue Ridge is headed into the match after thoroughly thrashing Mercersburg Academy: they outscored them in every quarter. Blue Ridge blew past Mercersburg Academy 82-59 on Monday. Given the Barons' advantage in MaxPreps' basketball rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked third in Virginia, while the Blue Storm are ranked 31st in Pennsylvania), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Dreylan Creasy-Quirindoongo continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, dropping a double-double on 37 points and 11 boards. Those 37 points gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Colby White, who went 5 of 10 on his way to 11 points along with five assists and five rebounds.

Blue Ridge was working as a unit and finished the game with 25 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.

Meanwhile, St. Anne's-Belfield entered their tilt with Trinity Episcopal on Tuesday with seven consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with eight. Everything went their way against the Titans as they made off with an 89-66 win.

St. Anne's-Belfield has also been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten contests, which provided a nice bump to their 15-7 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 78.5 points per game. As for Blue Ridge, they pushed their record up to 23-2 with the victory, which was their 14th straight at home dating back to last season.

Blue Ridge didn't have too much breathing room in their game against St. Anne's-Belfield when the teams last played back in December of 2024, but they still walked away with a 61-57 win. Will Blue Ridge repeat their success, or does St. Anne's-Belfield have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.