After five games on the road, New Prairie is heading back home. They will take on the Bremen Lions at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
New Prairie suffered their biggest loss since December 8, 2023 on Thursday. They ended up on the wrong side of a tough 71-45 walloping at the hands of South Bend Riley. While losing is never fun, New Prairie can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 375th, while South Bend Riley is ranked 21st).
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the most dominant came from Reece Lapczynski, who scored 16 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Colton Griffiths, who scored six points along with eight rebounds.
Meanwhile, Bremen struggled with assists on Saturday (Bethany Christian had seven more) and sadly the final score reflected it. Bremen opened the new year with a less-than-successful 57-47 defeat to Bethany Christian. Bremen has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Despite the loss, Bremen saw an underclassman step up: Chase Devine scored 23 points. Another player making a difference was Camden Hickman, who scored seven points.
New Prairie has not been sharp recently, as they've lost seven of their last eight games, which put a noticeable dent in their 2-11 record this season. As for Bremen, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-4.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: New Prairie have been smashing the glass this season, having only averaged 22.8 rebounds per game. It's a different story for Bremen, though, as they've been averaging only 19.4 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
New Prairie was taken down by Bremen 62-32 in their previous meeting back in December of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Devine, who scored 22 points along with five steals. Now that New Prairie knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
