Cathedral Prep and Canisius are an even 4-4 against one another since February of 2015, but not for long. The Cathedral Prep Ramblers will head out on the road to face off against the Canisius Crusaders at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Cathedral Prep focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 12 on Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, Cathedral Prep came up short against Erie and fell 51-42. While losing is never fun, Cathedral Prep can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 447th, while Erie is ranked 196th).
Despite their defeat, Cathedral Prep saw several players rise to the challenge and make noteworthy plays. Michael Thompson, who scored 14 points along with five rebounds, was perhaps the best of all. Another player making a difference was Nando Mirarchi, who scored 17 points.
Meanwhile, Canisius waltzed into their matchup Wednesday with two straight wins but they left with three. They put the hurt on Cardinal O'Hara with a sharp 78-54 win. The contest was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 43-23.
Cathedral Prep's loss ended a six-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 0-2. As for Canisius, they pushed their record up to 3-0 with that victory, which was their ninth straight on the road dating back to last season.
Things could have been worse for Cathedral Prep, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 55-40 loss to Canisius in their previous matchup back in January. Thankfully for Cathedral Prep, Shane Cercone (who dropped a double-double on 27 points and 12 rebounds) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
