Basketball Game Preview: Western Panthers vs. Maconaquah Braves

The Western Panthers will face off against the Maconaquah Braves at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Western is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 50.6 points per game this season.

Last Saturday, Western was just a bucket shy of victory and fell 50-49 to Taylor.

Western might have lost, but man, Carter Biggs was a machine: he almost dropped a double-double on 26 points and nine boards. Those 26 points gave Biggs a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Brycen Rucker, who posted six points.

Meanwhile, Maconaquah sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with an 82-79 victory over Kokomo on Saturday. The win was all the more spectacular given the Braves' disadvantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 155th, while the Wildkats are ranked 35th).

Maconaquah's win came from a few key players Western will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Josiah Ball, who went 7 for 16 en route to 25 points and seven rebounds. The game was his 32nd in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Devon Murry, who almost dropped a double-double on 16 points and nine boards.

Maconaquah is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-2-1 record this season. As for Western, their loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 9-5.

Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Western has been crashing the rebounds this season, having averaged 24.3 boards per game. However, it's not like Maconaquah struggles in that department as they've been averaging 33.4 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.

Western might still be hurting after the 98-78 defeat they got from Maconaquah in their previous matchup back in February of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Ball, who almost dropped a double-double on 50 points and nine boards. Now that Western knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.