Sparta is 0-10 against La Crosse Central since February of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Sparta Spartans will head out on the road to face off against the La Crosse Central Riverhawks at 7:15 p.m. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
While Sparta couldn't quite beat Menomonie on Tuesday, the three-point margin was a huge improvement compared to the 20-point defeat they were dealt two weeks ago. Sparta fell just short of Menomonie by a score of 80-77. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their last game two weeks ago (63), Sparta still had to take the loss.
Gavin Rhead put forth a good effort for the losing side as he dropped a double-double on 27 points and 13 rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of John Rice, who scored 25 points.
Meanwhile, La Crosse Central pushed their score all the way to 57 on Tuesday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They were just a bucket shy of victory and fell 58-57 to Eau Claire Memorial. While losing is never fun, La Crosse Central can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Wisconsin basketball rankings (they are ranked 171st, while Eau Claire Memorial is ranked 19th).
Sparta are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 3-9. As for La Crosse Central, they now have a losing record at 5-6.
Sparta and La Crosse Central were neck-and-neck in their previous matchup back in February of 2023, but Sparta came up empty-handed after a 8-7 loss. Can Sparta avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
