The Carbondale Terriers will be home for the holidays to greet the Metro-East Lutheran Knights at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
Carbondale's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Saturday after their third straight loss. They were just a bucket shy of victory and fell 45-44 to Herrin. The loss unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Carbondale in their matchups with Herrin: they've now lost three in a row.
The losing side was boosted by Decarl Payne, who scored 27 points. He scored a full 61.4% of Carbondale's points, the eighth time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Jaxon Marlow-evans was another key contributor, scoring six points.
Meanwhile, things could have been worse for Metro-East Lutheran, but they could have been a whole lot better as they took a 58-39 loss to Marquette Catholic on Friday. While losing is never fun, Metro-East Lutheran can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 560th, while Marquette Catholic is ranked 149th).
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the most dominant came from Lanydon Jefferson, who scored nine points. Another player making a difference was Thijson Heard, who scored eight points.
Carbondale has not been sharp recently, as they've lost four of their last five matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 4-4 record this season. As for Metro-East Lutheran, they now have a losing record at 1-2.
