Charlotte Catholic has enjoyed the comforts of home their last three games, but now they'll head out on the road. They will square off against the Lake Norman Wildcats at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are closely ranked in North Carolina (Charlotte Catholic is ranked fifth, while Lake Norman is ranked seventh).
Charlotte Catholic had already proven themselves in the regular season, and didn't miss a beat now that it's playoff time. They walked away with a 52-40 victory over Marvin Ridge on Tuesday.
Blanca Thomas was her usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 27 points and 11 rebounds. She hasn't dropped below 16 points for seven straight games. Olivia Fava was another key contributor, scoring nine points along with five assists and four steals.
Meanwhile, Lake Norman entered their tilt with Alexander Central with two consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with three. Lake Norman came out on top against Alexander Central by a score of 50-38 on Tuesday.
Lake Norman can attribute much of their success to Alexis Shehan, who dropped a double-double on 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Samantha Shehan, who scored 19 points. Shehan has been hot recently, having posted eight or more rebounds the last four times she's played. Another player making a difference was Kelsey Rhyne, who scored seven points.
Charlotte Catholic pushed their record up to 25-4 with that victory, which was their 19th straight at home dating back to last season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 63.3 points per game. As for Lake Norman, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 18 of their last 19 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 26-2 record this season.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as Charlotte Catholic and Lake Norman are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Charlotte Catholic hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 57.8 points per game. However, it's not like Lake Norman struggles in that department as they've been averaging 69.9 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Charlotte Catholic came up short against Lake Norman when the teams last played back in March of 2023, falling 60-54. Thankfully for Charlotte Catholic, Kirsten Lewis-Williams (who dropped a double-double on 35 points and 16 rebounds) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
