*THESE GAMES HAVE BEEN POSTPONED*

The WACO Warriors will host Holy Trinity Catholic for a Southeast Iowa Superconference doubleheader tonight on KCII.

The girls will step onto the floor for the second time this season, coming off of a 49-46 loss to Wapello last Tuesday. The Warriors shot 30% from the field, but were just 3-for-25 from 3-point range. WACO did win the rebounding battle, 33 to 30, but committed 27 turnovers in defeat. Junior Carlee Lunsford led the Warriors with 11 points. Fellow junior Drew Graber added 10, and another junior, Courtney Waterford, picked up 9.

WACO Warriors girls basketball head coach Mitch Drey joined KCII for an interview shortly after the loss to Wapello. “It always sucks losing a game, it really sucks losing a game when its a close game, but there’s moments where you learn a lot about your team. And we learned a lot about ourselves last night, and I think with that information moving forward, I think it’s going to make it better for the games to come.”

Tonight’s opponent, Holy Trinity Catholic, has dominated this matchup in previous years, winning 16 of the last 23 games between the two schools going back to 2009. The Crusaders have also won the last five, including a close win last year, 43-37. This will be HTC’s first varsity contest this season. Last season, the Crusaders finished 15-8 and finished 3rd in the SEISC-South. Two of their three leaders in scoring last season, juniors Adalyn Kruse and Elizabeth Griffin, return this year.

The WACO boys will also get their season started tonight. The Warriors are looking to run back last season’s success, including an 18-6 record and a 14-2 record within the SEISC-North. WACO averaged 56 points per game while allowing just 48. The Warriors shot just over 40% from the field last season, and 32% from beyond the arc. WACO will need to replace some scoring, losing two of their top three in that category. Junior Holden Hughes averaged 8.9 points per game last season, and will look to carry more of the load this season.

WACO boys head coach Chayse Roth also joined KCII for an interview following their scrimmage against BGM last Monday, and talked about how he’d keep the team ready to go through Thanksgiving break. “I’m really big on family, and enjoying your family and your friends. So I’ll let them really enjoy their time and soak that in while their families are around. And we’ll play basketball when we can, but we’ll be ready. I know we’ve talked about Holy Trinity coming up on Monday, and we’ll do our best to prepare for them.”

Meanwhile, the HTC boys had plenty of success in their own right last season, finishing 19-5 and 10-4 in the SEISC-South, good for 3rd place. The Crusaders defeated WACO twice last season, the first time 57-35 to kick off the season, and 72-39 the second time to end the Warriors’ season. Like the Warriors, HTC will need to replace a lot of their scoring, with 3 of their 4 top scorers graduating last year.

Tonight’s doubleheader can be heard on FM106.1, the KCII1 app, and kciiradio.com. The Area Game of the Week pregame show will begin at 5:30 p.m, with tip-off of the girls game to come at 6 p.m. The boys contest will follow shortly after the conclusion of the girls game.