The Unity Christian Knights will take on the Pathway Christian Panthers in a holiday battle at at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Unity Christian is headed into the game out to prove that what happened against Quad Cities Christian last Tuesday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Unity Christian took a blow against Quad Cities Christian, falling 68-22. The matchup marked the Knights' lowest-scoring contest so far this season.
Graham Foust was Unity Christian's leading scorer, having posted eight points. Nathan Woessner held things down on the boards with nine rebounds.
Meanwhile, Pathway Christian had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 7 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Tuesday. Everything went their way against the Eagles as they made off with a 47-25 win. The game marked the Panthers' most dominant victory of the season so far.
Pathway Christian's win came from a few key players Unity Christian will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Denver Nelson, who went 7 for 14 on his way to 15 points in addition to six assists and five steals. His evening made it four games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Preston Yutzy, who went 6 of 12 en route to 14 points and three steals.
Pathway Christian pushed their record up to 3-4 with the win, which was their third straight on the road. As for Unity Christian, their loss dropped their record down to 2-6.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Unity Christian has been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 26.1 boards per game. However, it's not like Pathway Christian struggles in that department as they've been averaging 21.3 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Unity Christian came up short against Pathway Christian when the teams last played back in February, falling 52-44. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Pathway Christian's Ryker Miller, who dropped a double-double on 26 points and 13 rebounds. Now that Unity Christian knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
