The Piper Pirates will take on the Shawnee Heights Thunderbirds at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams are coming into the game red-hot, with Piper sitting on four straight wins and Shawnee Heights on six.
Last Saturday, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Piper beat De Soto 49-44. Given the Pirates' advantage in MaxPreps' Kansas basketball rankings (they are ranked tenth, while the Wildcats are ranked 52nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Shawnee Heights didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Saint Thomas Aquinas on Saturday, but they still walked away with a 49-44 victory. The 49-point effort marked the Thunderbirds' lowest-scoring matchup of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Piper better focus on containing Ontarius Emmot and Jaret Sanchez as the pair were huge in Shawnee Heights' win. Emmot posted 15 points, while Sanchez shot 50% from the field to rack up 14 points. The dominant performance gave Emmot a new career-high in points. Another player making a difference was Deacon Pomeroy, who put up seven points and five rebounds.
Shawnee Heights' win was their tenth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 19-3. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 70.2 points over those games. As for Piper, their victory bumped their record up to 19-3.
Piper strolled past Shawnee Heights in their previous matchup back in January by a score of 67-50. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Sanchez, who went 9-for-20 on his way to 26 points and five boards. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Piper still be able to contain Sanchez? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
