Normal West was the  57-34 winner over East Peoria when they last played one another  back in February of 2024, but their luck changed this time around. The Normal West Wildcats fell  59-49 to the East Peoria Raiders on Tuesday. While losing is never fun, the Wildcats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage  in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings  (they are ranked 359th, while the Raiders are ranked 87th).

 Michael Zaleski
| 02/11/25 @ East Peoria | 2 | 
| 01/31/25 vs Peoria | 1 | 
| 12/27/24 vs Harlem | 1 | 
| 12/13/24 vs Richwoods | 1 | 
When it comes to explaining why Normal West lost, don't look at  Michael Zaleski. Despite the final result, he  went 8-for-19  on his way to 22  points and five  rebounds. The dominant performance also gave  Zaleski a new career-high in  blocks (two).  Chase Sennett was another key player,  putting up ten points.
 Even though they lost, Normal West  smashed the offensive glass and  finished the game with 15  offensive rebounds. That's the most  offensive boards they've managed all season.
Normal West's defeat dropped their record down to 7-17. As for East Peoria, they are  on a roll lately: they've  won five of their last six contests,  which provided a nice bump to their 20-7 record  this season.
 Normal West has already played their next matchup,  a  67-38  loss against Manual on the 14th. As for East Peoria, they also  wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next  game,  a  56-51  defeat against Metamora on the 14th.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps