Two dominant forwards in Damon Friery and Brayden Gross are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The St. Ignatius Wildcats will head out to take on the Louisville Leopards at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. St. Ignatius is coming into the contest hot, having won their last eight games.
Last Friday, St. Ignatius strolled past St. Edward with points to spare, taking the game 67-51. Given the Wildcats' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked first, while the Eagles are ranked 35th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Northwest typically has all the answers at home, but on Tuesday Louisville proved too difficult a challenge. They put the hurt on the Indians with a sharp 79-54 victory. The Leopards have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won eight matches by 23 points or more this season.
Louisville's win came from a few key players St. Ignatius will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Gross, who dropped a double-double with 21 points and 15 boards. That's the most rebounds he has posted since back in November of 2024. The team also got some help courtesy of Beau Siegfried, who put up 14 points along with seven assists and five steals.
Louisville smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 14 offensive rebounds. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their offensive rebound total in three consecutive games.
St. Ignatius' win was their 18th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 17-3. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 78.1 points over those games. As for Louisville, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won ten of their last 11 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 15-5 record this season.
St. Ignatius was able to grind out a solid victory over Louisville in their previous matchup back in December of 2023, winning 75-62. The rematch might be a little tougher for St. Ignatius since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
