Geibel Catholic is 0-4 against Clairton since January of 2017 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Geibel Catholic Gators are on the road again and play against the Clairton Bears at 5:00 p.m. on December 28th. Hopefully Geibel Catholic focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 29 last Tuesday.
Geibel Catholic's 18-9 record from last season is now well into the rear view mirror after another tough outing. They took a hard 73-56 fall against Aquinas Academy. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the most dominant came from Tommy Kolencik, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and 12 rebounds. Those 18 points set a new season-high mark for him. Another player making a difference was Gary Tarbuk, who scored nine points along with eight assists.
Even though they lost, Geibel Catholic were working as a unit and finished the game with 14 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Clairton came up short against West Mifflin on Thursday and fell 58-46. Clairton has not had much luck with West Mifflin recently, as the team's come up short the last two times they've met.
Clairton's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Bryant Blair, who scored 11 points along with six rebounds and three blocks, and Taris Wooding who scored 11 points along with seven rebounds. Those six rebounds set a new season-high mark for him. The team also got some help courtesy of Mike Wright jr., who scored six points.
Geibel Catholic bumped their record down to 0-7 with that loss, which was their fifth straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Clairton, they now have a losing record at 4-5.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Geibel Catholic have been smashing the glass this season, having only averaged 21 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Clairton struggles in that department as they've been averaging only 28.2 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Geibel Catholic was dealt a bruising 87-37 loss at the hands of Clairton in their previous meeting back in January of 2018. The match was all but decided by halftime, at which point Geibel Catholic was down 58-14.
