Aquinas and John F. Kennedy Catholic are an even 5-5 against one another since December of 2016, but not for long. The Aquinas Knights will head out on the road to face off against the John F. Kennedy Catholic Eagles at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Hopefully Aquinas focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 38 on Monday.
On Monday, in a tight matchup that could have gone either way, Aquinas made off with a 42-41 win over Rittman.
Aquinas relied on the efforts of Paris Everett, who almost dropped a triple-double on 15 points, 14 rebounds, and nine steals, and K'Lynn Carter, who dropped a double-double on 20 points and 14 rebounds. That makes it seven consecutive games in which Carter has scored at least a third of Aquinas' points.
Meanwhile, John F. Kennedy Catholic's game on Wednesday was all tied up 26-26 at the half, but luckily for them it didn't stay that way. They walked away with a 66-56 victory over Mogadore. Given John F. Kennedy Catholic's advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 197th, while Mogadore is ranked 501st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead John F. Kennedy Catholic to victory, but perhaps none more so than Ava Darney, who scored 17 points along with two steals. Darney has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last three times she's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Hannah Myers, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Aquinas' record is now 6-8. As for John F. Kennedy Catholic, their victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 11-3.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Aquinas have been smashing the glass this season, having only averaged 33.9 rebounds per game. However, it's not like John F. Kennedy Catholic struggles in that department as they've been averaging only 35.9 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Aquinas might still be hurting after the 55-34 loss they got from John F. Kennedy Catholic in their previous meeting back in December of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Darney, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and 15 rebounds. Now that Aquinas knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
