Basketball Preview: Manteno Panthers vs. Coal City Coalers
Manteno has enjoyed the comforts of home their last two games, but now they'll head out on the road. They will take on the Coal City Coalers at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Even though Manteno has not done well against the Tigers recently (they were 2-7 in their previous nine matchups), they didn't let the past get in their way on Thursday. Manteno walked away with a 40-30 win over the Tigers.
Manteno found their leader in underclassman Maddie Gesky, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and 18 rebounds. Gesky hasn't dropped below 11 rebounds for four straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Sydney Sosnowski, who scored five points along with 11 steals.
Meanwhile, Coal City had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 25 points), and they went ahead and made it four on Thursday. They strolled past Reed-Custer with points to spare, taking the game 46-27. Given Coal City's advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 157th, while the Comets are ranked 427th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Manteno's win was their fifth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 16-10. As for Coal City, they are on a roll lately: they've won 14 of their last 16 games, which provided a nice bump to their 20-3 record this season.
Manteno suffered a grim 51-30 defeat to the Coalers when the teams last played back in January. Can Manteno avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
