Basketball Game Preview: Laurel Gators vs. Elyria Catholic Panthers
By Team Reports
Feb 20, 2025, 1:24am
Basketball Preview: Laurel Gators vs. Elyria Catholic Panthers
The Laurel Gators will challenge the Elyria Catholic Panthers at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Laurel is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They breezed past Trinity to the tune of 69-33. Winning may never get old, but the Gators sure are getting used to it with their fifth in a row.
Meanwhile, a well-balanced attack led Elyria Catholic over Hubbard in every quarter on their way to victory on Tuesday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Elyria Catholic blew Hubbard out of the water with a 64-29 final score. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 81st, while the Eagles are ranked 501st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Elyria Catholic has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten games, which provided a nice bump to their 19-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.2 points over those games. As for Laurel, their victory bumped their record up to 11-13.
Everything went Laurel's way against Elyria Catholic in their previous meeting back in December of 2019, as Laurel made off with an 82-62 win. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Elyria Catholic's Ally Winnen, who dropped a double-double with 26 points and ten boards. Now that she won't be playing on Saturday, will it be easier for Laurel to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps