Aquinas is on a three-game streak of home wins, while Grand Island Central Catholic is on a five-game streak of away wins (dating back to last season): one of those streaks is about to end. The Aquinas Monarchs will welcome the Grand Island Central Catholic Crusaders at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Aquinas is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They enjoyed a cozy 65-48 win over Twin River on Tuesday. Given the Monarchs' advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 99th, while the Titans are ranked 226th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, you're bound to get a positive result if you outscore your opponent every quarter, and that's exactly how it played out for Grand Island Central Catholic on Tuesday. They took down York 66-51.
Grand Island Central Catholic's win came from a few key players Aquinas will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Thomas Liban, who went 8 of 14 en route to 19 points and eight steals. Those eight steals gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Connor Haney, who made all 6 shots he took for 14 points and three steals.
Aquinas has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a massive bump to their 8-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 50.8 points per game. As for Grand Island Central Catholic, their victory bumped their record up to 11-2.
Aquinas came up short against Grand Island Central Catholic when the teams last played back in January of 2024, falling 56-51. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Liban, who went 7 for 17 on his way to 19 points in addition to five boards and three steals. Now that Aquinas knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
