The Mercer Cardinals will be staying on the road on Saturday to face off against the Meadville Eagles at 5:00 p.m. on January 27th. Mercer will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Missouri Rankings (they are ranked 118th, while Meadville is ranked 25th).
On Thursday, Mercer's game was all tied up 14-14 at the half, but luckily for them it didn't stay that way. They snuck past Grundy County/Newtown-Harris with a 37-32 win. Despite the win, that was the fewest points Mercer has scored all season.
Meanwhile, Meadville put another one in the bag on Thursday to keep their perfect season alive. They took their match at home with ease, bagging a 85-18 win over Tina-Avalon. Meadville has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 13 matchups by 31 points or more this season.
Meadville relied on the efforts of Madison Carvajal, who almost dropped a triple-double on 23 points, nine assists, and 11 steals, and Korrie Holcer, who shot 7-for-9 from downtown and dropped a double-double on 29 points and ten steals. Holcer is absolutely dominating the steal category: she's posted at least two every time she's taken the court this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Paige Carvajal, who scored 18 points along with three steals.
Mercer's record now sits at 13-1. As for Meadville, they pushed their record up to 15-0 with that win, which was their 16th straight at home.
Mercer took a serious blow against Meadville in their previous matchup back in January of 2023, falling 63-27. Can Mercer avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
