Basketball Preview: Coal City Coalers vs. Manteno Panthers
Coal City is 9-1 against the Panthers since January of 2020, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Monday. The Coal City Coalers will be playing at home against the Manteno Panthers at 7:00 p.m. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Coal City comes in on four and the Panthers on six.
Last Thursday, Coal City didn't have too much trouble with the Comets at home as they won 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.
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.
Coal City is on a roll lately: they've won 14 of their last 16 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 20-3 record this season. As for Manteno, they pushed their record up to 16-10 with that win, which was their fifth straight at home.
Everything went Coal City's way against the Panthers when the teams last played back in January as the Coalers made off with a 51-30 win. Will Coal City repeat their success, or do the Panthers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
