St. X's style of play should make this a very close game. Many of St X's defeats where very close games, like this past Tuesday against Male.

 

If the 6' 10" Nicolic can stay out of foul trouble I think Manual has enough talent to get the win. Nicolic has been playing much better this last month.

Nicolic will be a huge match up problem for St X.

St. X has been close in a lot of games only to lose at the end. This will be a close one but IMO you have to get a slight edge to Manual the way they are playing now.

Manual 63-57.

Manual 63-57.

 

I think the score mentioned here is reasonable. Although I could be wrong, I think it will be much more difficult now to holding Manual under 70. Samsel has really elevated his play and is finding the open man often and easy. In many cases, Mitchell is the recipient of those passes and he's nailing his shots recently. Mitchell and Samsel combined for 37 points in the win over Iroquois.

 

St. X will be ready and I believe Manual is carrying a 6-game winning streak over the Tigers including the regular season game last year where Manual wins by a deuce. For the out-of-towners on here, Samsel is #3 in the X highlight clip.

 

http://www.hsgametime.com/louisville/videopage.html?nvid=324925

Let's go X!