The St. Ignatius Wildcats and the St. Edward Eagles will face off at 7:00 p.m. on February 2nd without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. One thing working in St. Ignatius' favor is that they have posted big point totals every time they've taken the court this season.
Last Saturday, St. Ignatius was able to grind out a solid victory over Buchtel, taking the game 55-46. Given St. Ignatius' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked first, while Buchtel is ranked 229th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
It was another big night for Quinn Woidke, who scored 17 points along with six rebounds and five steals. He is on a roll when it comes to points, as he's now scored 15 or more in the last five games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Kalli Johnson, who scored ten points along with two steals.
Meanwhile, St. Edward had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 19.3 points), and they went ahead and made it five on Saturday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Benedictine 95-57 on the road. St. Edward's offense stepped up their game for this one, as that was the most points they've scored all season.
St. Ignatius pushed their record up to 14-3 with that victory, which was their fifth straight on the road dating back to last season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 78.4 points per game. As for St. Edward, they are on a roll lately: they've won six of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 11-5 record this season.
Everything went St. Ignatius' way against St. Edward in their previous matchup on January 5th as St. Ignatius made off with a 67-41 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for St. Ignatius since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.