The St. Francis Spartans will challenge the Boylan Catholic Titans at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. Hopefully St. Francis focused on turnovers this week as the team gave up 16 on Thursday.
Last Thursday, St. Francis came up short against Saint Viator and fell 47-35. The matchup marked the Spartans' lowest-scoring match so far this season.
St. Francis' defeat came about despite a quality game from Riley Austin, who almost dropped a double-double on nine points and nine rebounds. The dominant performance also gave Austin a new career-high in offensive rebounds (four). Another player making a difference was Arianna Naples, who had nine points.
Even though they lost, St. Francis smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 11 offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Boylan Catholic entered their tilt with Belvidere North on Friday with two consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with three. They came out on top against the Blue Thunder by a score of 33-24. Given the Titans' advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 162nd, while the Blue Thunder are ranked 420th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Boylan Catholic's victory bumped their record up to 4-2. As for St. Francis, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 2-4.
St. Francis came up short against Boylan Catholic in their previous meeting back in December of 2023, falling 45-38. Thankfully for St. Francis, Lilian Esparza (who posted 17 points in addition to six rebounds and two blocks) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
