The Columbia Eagles will face off against the Meridian Bobcats at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Columbia is headed into the game after thoroughly thrashing Freeburg: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Columbia blew Freeburg out of the water with a 68-38 final score. The Eagles have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 13 matchups by 23 points or more this season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Columbia to victory, but perhaps none more so than Eddie Smajic, who posted 22 points. Sam Donald was another key player, putting up 18 points.
Meanwhile, Meridian came up short against Centralia on Saturday and fell 69-60. While losing is never fun, the Bobcats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 205th, while the Orphans are ranked 23rd).
Columbia is on a roll lately: they've won 12 of their last 14 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 23-6 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 64.6 points over those games. As for Meridian, their defeat dropped their record down to 22-7.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
