Jeannette and Serra Catholic are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2019, but not for long. The Jeannette Jayhawks will be home for the holidays to greet the Serra Catholic Eagles at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are ranked near one another in Pennsylvania (Jeannette is ranked 274th, while Serra Catholic is ranked 298th).
On Wednesday, Jeannette didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Steel Valley, but they still walked away with a 46-41 victory.
Jeannette found their leader in underclassman Markus McGowan, who scored 19 points. That's the first time this season that McGowan scored 15 or more points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kymone Brown, who scored 11 points.
Meanwhile, Serra Catholic unfortunately witnessed the end of their three-game winning streak on Tuesday. They fell 71-59 to Ellwood City. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Despite the loss, Serra Catholic had strong showings from Pete Burke, who scored 24 points along with seven rebounds and six steals, and Owen Dumbroski, who scored 20 points along with six assists and five rebounds. Burke scored a full 40.7% of Serra Catholic's points, the third time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Tyler Sapida was another key contributor, scoring seven points along with six rebounds.
Even though they lost, Serra Catholic were working as a unit and finished the game with ten assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Ellwood City only racked up 26 assists.
Jeannette's win was their sixth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 4-2. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 58.0 points per game. As for Serra Catholic, their loss dropped their record down to 3-2.
Jeannette couldn't quite finish off Serra Catholic in their previous matchup back in January and fell 48-45. Can Jeannette avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
