Preview: Evansville Reitz Panthers vs. Evansville Central Bears
The Evansville Reitz Panthers will head out on the road to face off against the Evansville Central Bears at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Evansville Reitz sitting on eight straight victories and Evansville Central on four.
Evansville Reitz has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won four matchups by 21 points or more this season. Everything went their way against North Posey on Monday as Evansville Reitz made off with a 63-42 victory. Given Evansville Reitz's advantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 60th, while North Posey is ranked 222nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Norah Miller continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, dropping a double-double on 27 points and ten rebounds. That makes it five consecutive games in which she has scored at least 25% of Evansville Reitz's points. Bailey Hape was another key contributor, scoring 15 points.
Even though Evansville Central has not done well against Evansville North recently (they were 2-7 in their previous nine matchups), they didn't let the past get in their way last Tuesday. Evansville Central walked away with a 65-54 win over Evansville North.
Evansville Central got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Madalynn Shirley out in front who scored 21 points along with eight rebounds and three blocks. The game was Shirley's 11th in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Mya Skelton, who scored 15 points along with seven rebounds and five assists.
Evansville Reitz pushed their record up to 8-0 with that win, which was their sixth straight on the road. As for Evansville Central, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 9-2 record this season.
Evansville Reitz came up short against Evansville Central in their previous matchup back in December of 2022, falling 52-47. Can Evansville Reitz avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
