The St. Mary's Cardinals will challenge the Ainsworth Bulldogs at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. St. Mary's is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 64 points per game this season.
St. Mary's saw some tournament action last Saturday. They lost to Norfolk Catholic on the road by a 71-55 margin.
St. Mary's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Logan Brabec, who went 8 of 15 on his way to 22 points and three steals, and Gage Hedstrom, who went 10 of 25 on his way to 21 points and six rebounds. That was a full 40% of St. Mary's points, marking the third time in a row he's posted more than a third of the team's points.
Meanwhile, you can't lose the game if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Ainsworth's strategy against Mullen on Friday. Ainsworth snuck past Mullen with a 49-45 victory. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Bulldogs.
St. Mary's better keep an eye on Chris Fernandez. He was instrumental in Ainsworth's win, putting up 16 points along with five assists and five boards. The team also got some help courtesy of Witten Painter, who had 12 points and six rebounds.
Ainsworth's win bumped their record up to 2-6. As for St. Mary's, their loss dropped their record down to 7-2.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: St. Mary's has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 31.1 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Ainsworth struggles in that department as they've been averaging 21.4 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
St. Mary's suffered a grim 64-38 defeat to Ainsworth in their previous matchup back in December of 2014. Can St. Mary's avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
