The North East Grape Pickers will be playing at home against the Northwestern Wildcats at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Hopefully North East focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 22 on Monday.
On Monday, North East came up short against Erie and fell 53-42. The defeat unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for North East in their matchups with Erie: they've now lost three in a row.
The losing side was boosted by Alexandra Cozzens, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 14 rebounds. The matchup was Cozzens' third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kayla Forsythe, who scored three points along with five rebounds.
Meanwhile, Northwestern earned a 41-32 victory over Lakeview on Monday.
Northwestern found their leader in underclassman Makayla Presser-Palmer, who scored 22 points. That makes it four consecutive games in which Presser-Palmer has scored at least 25% of Northwestern's points.
North East's loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 2-3. As for Northwestern, their victory was their seventh straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 3-1.
Thursday's match is shaping up to be a scrappy contest: North East have been smashing the glass this season, having only averaged 28.4 rebounds per game. It's a different story for Northwestern, though, as they've been averaging only 21.2 rebounds per game. Given North East's sizeable advantage in that area, Northwestern will need to find a way to close that gap.
North East came up short against Northwestern when the teams last played back in January, falling 56-45. Can North East avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
