Basketball Game Preview: St. Paul Wildcats vs. Centura Centurions

The St. Paul Wildcats will head out on the road to square off against the Centura Centurions at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. St. Paul has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the match with seven straight losses, while Centura will come in with three straight wins.

St. Paul is headed into the game out to prove that what happened against Minden on Tuesday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. St. Paul was beaten by Minden 70-26. While losing is never fun, the Wildcats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 169th, while the Whippets are ranked sixth).

The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Katie Kleinsasser, who posted six points and five rebounds. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in assists (two). Another player making a difference was Aubree Fitzgerald, who put up six points and six boards.

Even though they lost, St. Paul smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with ten offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive boards in four consecutive contests.

Meanwhile, you can't lose the game if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Centura's strategy against Loomis on Saturday. Centura put the hurt on Loomis with a sharp 48-26 victory.

Centura has also been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a massive bump to their 7-9 record this season. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 27.8 points per game. As for St. Paul, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-10.

St. Paul was taken down by Centura 49-21 in their previous matchup back in January of 2024. Can St. Paul avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.