The Northwestern Wildcats will be playing in front of their home fans against the North East Grape Pickers at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Northwestern is coming into the matchup hot, having won their last three games.
Northwestern put the finishing touches on their sixth blowout victory of the season on Monday. They claimed a resounding 56-11 victory over Iroquois at home. With Northwestern ahead 31-8 at the half, the game was all but over already.
Northwestern found their leader in underclassman Makayla Presser-Palmer, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 13 rebounds. That makes it five consecutive games in which Presser-Palmer has scored at least a third of Northwestern's points. Another player making a difference was Brooke Miller, who scored eight points along with two steals.
Meanwhile, North East unfortunately witnessed the end of their seven-game winning streak on Thursday. They suffered a tough 54-33 defeat at the hands of Mercyhurst Prep. While losing is never fun, North East can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 231st, while Mercyhurst Prep is ranked 115th).
Northwestern has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 12-3 record this season. As for North East, their loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 9-5.
Northwestern was able to grind out a solid win over North East in their previous matchup back in December of 2023, winning 41-29. Will Northwestern repeat their success, or does North East have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
