Basketball Game Preview: St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders vs. Blanche Ely Tigers

The St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders will challenge the Blanche Ely Tigers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Last Wednesday, everything came up roses for St. Thomas Aquinas against Coral Springs Charter as the squad secured a 68-19 win. Given the Raiders' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 16th, while the Panthers are ranked 152nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Blanche Ely had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 41.7 points) and they went ahead and made it four on Thursday. They blew past the Lightning 59-20.

Blanche Ely's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 14-5. Those victories came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 13.0 points per game. As for St. Thomas Aquinas, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 14-7 record this season.

St. Thomas Aquinas was able to grind out a solid win over Blanche Ely in their previous matchup on January 14th, winning 47-39. The rematch might be a little tougher for St. Thomas Aquinas since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.