If Speedway was riding high fresh off their 70-40 takedown of Herron on Friday, their most recent game may have dampened their spirits a bit. The Sparkplugs lost to the Decatur Central Hawks at home by a 77-61 margin on Tuesday. The Sparkplugs haven't had much luck with the Hawks recently, as the team has come up short the last four times they've met.
Despite the loss, Speedway still got an impressive performance from Drew Matelic, who went 10-for-17 on his way to 24 points and seven rebounds. That was a full 39.3% of the Sparkplugs' points, marking the tenth time in a row Matelic has posted more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Kyle Merlie, who had 12 points and five assists.
Decatur Central's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Nash Sigmund led the charge by shooting 67% from beyond the arc to rack up 24 points. With that strong performance, Sigmund is now averaging an impressive 15.3 points per game. Elyas Zapata was another key player, going 8-for-13 en route to 17 points.
Speedway's record now sits at 4-6. As for Decatur Central, the victory (which was their seventh in a row) raised their record to 11-1.
Looking ahead, Speedway will face off against Traders Point Christian at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. The Sparkplugs will be up against the Knights' rather soft defense (which has allowed 63 points per matchup), so fans could be in store for a big offensive performance. As for Decatur Central, they have already played their next contest, a 66-54 loss against Pike on the 14th.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
