The St. Paul Wildcats and the O'Neill Eagles will round out the year against one another at at 3:25 p.m. on Friday. St. Paul has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games.
Last Saturday, St. Paul didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Broken Bow, but they still walked away with a 55-50 win.
Meanwhile, O'Neill was not able to break out of their rough patch on Saturday as the team picked up their third straight defeat. They took a 44-31 hit to the loss column at the hands of Wayne. While losing is never fun, the Eagles can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 115th, while the Blue Devils are ranked tenth).
St. Paul will have to contain Porter Mathews as he made an impact in O'Neill's last game. He posted four points and 11 rebounds. Brady Eichelberger was another key player, going 6 of 11 on his way to 12 points.
Even though they lost, O'Neill smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 16 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in seven consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
The victory got St. Paul back to even at 3-3. As for O'Neill, their loss dropped their record down to 2-4.
St. Paul was taken down by O'Neill 72-39 when the teams last played back in December of 2022. Can St. Paul avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
