The Centralia Orphans will take on the Mt. Vernon Rams at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Centralia sitting on ten straight victories and Mt. Vernon on four.
Centralia had already proven themselves in the regular season, and didn't miss a beat now that it's playoff time. They came out on top against Highland by a score of 60-52 on Tuesday. Given Centralia's advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 15th, while Highland is ranked 95th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Mt. Vernon has not done well against East St. Louis recently (they were 0-3 in their previous three matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Wednesday. Mt. Vernon managed a 70-64 win over East St. Louis. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Mt. Vernon got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Navontae D nesbit jr. out in front who scored 24 points along with six rebounds and two steals. D nesbit jr. hasn't dropped below two steals for three straight games. Another player making a difference was Marlin Price, who scored 17 points along with two steals.
Centralia pushed their record up to 31-2 with that win, which was their 15th straight at home. They've been dominating during the games in that stretch too, as they've won by an average of 28.3 points. As for Mt. Vernon, their win bumped their record up to 24-9.
Centralia came up short against Mt. Vernon in their previous meeting back in January, falling 43-38. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of D nesbit jr., who scored 22 points along with two steals. Now that Centralia 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
