The Ainsworth Bulldogs will challenge the St. Mary's Cardinals at 7:00  p.m.  on Friday. The timing isn't great for Ainsworth: they have been struggling with five straight losses at home, while St. Mary's has snatched up four consecutive wins on the road.
Ainsworth is headed into the  game after thoroughly thrashing Mullen: they outscored them in every quarter. Ainsworth snuck past Mullen with  a  49-45 victory on Friday.
  Chris Fernandez was the offensive standout of the  contest as he  posted 16 points along with five  assists and five  boards. The team also got some help courtesy of  Witten Painter, who  had 12  points and six  rebounds.
Meanwhile, St. Mary's lost to Norfolk Catholic on the road  by a   71-55 margin last Saturday.
 Ainsworth will have to keep a close watch on  Logan Brabec and  Gage Hedstrom, a pair of players who had a big impact on St. Mary's prior game. Brabec  went 8 of 15  on his way to 22 points and three  steals, while  Hedstrom  went 10 of 25  on his way to 21  points and six  rebounds. That was a full 40% of St. Mary's points, marking the third time in a row he's   put up  more than a third of the team's points.
 Ainsworth's win bumped their record up to 2-6. As for St. Mary's, their loss dropped their record down to 7-2.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest:  Ainsworth has crashing the boards this season,  having  averaged 21.4  boards per game. However, it's not like St. Mary's struggles in that department as   they've been averaging 31.1  rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
 Ainsworth took their  victory against St. Mary's  in their previous meeting  back in December of 2014 by a conclusive  64-38. Will Ainsworth repeat their success,  or does  St. Mary's have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps