Basketball Game Preview: Boonville Pioneers vs. Castle Knights

Boonville is 0-9 against Castle since December of 2014 but things could change on Tuesday. The Boonville Pioneers are taking a road trip to face off against the Castle Knights at 7:00 p.m.

Last Saturday, Boonville didn't have quite enough to beat Perry Central and fell 49-47. The Pioneers have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Castle). They came out on top against Jennings County by a score of 84-73 on Saturday.

Boonville better keep an eye on Xander Niehaus. He was instrumental in Castle's win, going 5 of 10 en route to 20 points along with six rebounds and three steals. Niehaus has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last four times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Aiden Meyer, who went 6 of 10 en route to 15 points.

Castle's win ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 4-6. As for Boonville, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-5.

Boonville might still be hurting after the 60-40 loss they got from Castle in their previous matchup back in January of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Niehaus, who posted 13 points along with seven rebounds and four steals. Now that Boonville knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.