The Oak Park Northmen will head out on the road to square off against the Kearney Bulldogs at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Even though Oak Park has not done well against Central recently (they were 2-7 in their previous nine matchups), they didn't let the past get in their way on Monday. Oak Park breezed by Central at home to the tune of 63-32. Given Oak Park's advantage in MaxPreps' Missouri basketball rankings (they are ranked 80th, while Central is ranked 349th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Kearney has not had quite the year their fans were hoping for to this point, but back-to-back wins may be a sign of good things to come. They took their matchup at home on Tuesday with ease, bagging a 62-29 victory over Excelsior Springs.
Kearney found their leader in underclassman Brooke Paalhar, who scored ten points along with eight assists and two steals. It was the first time this season that Paalhar posted eight or more assists. Another player making a difference was Addison Taylor, who scored seven points.
Oak Park is on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last 12 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 13-7 record this season. As for Kearney, their win bumped their record up to 5-14.
Things could have been worse for Oak Park, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 50-34 loss to Kearney in their previous meeting back in February of 2023. Can Oak Park avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
