Preview: Hug Hawks vs. North Valleys Panthers
The Hug Hawks will head out on the road to face off against the North Valleys Panthers at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Hug will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Nevada Rankings (they are ranked 90th, while North Valleys is ranked 20th).
Hug suffered their closest defeat yet this season on Friday. They fell just short of Truckee by a score of 32-29. Hug has struggled against Truckee recently, as their matchup on Friday was their sixth consecutive lost matchup.
Hug's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Taliyah Henderson, who scored nine points, and Andrea Trujillo who scored nine points.
Meanwhile, North Valleys waltzed into their matchup on Saturday with four straight wins but they left with five. They came out on top against South Tahoe by a score of 61-49.
Hug's defeat was their 13th straight at home, which bumped their record down to 1-12. That rough patch could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 21.2 points per game. As for North Valleys, they have been performing well recently as they've won ten of their last 13 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season.
Hug was dealt a bruising 71-26 defeat at the hands of North Valleys when the teams last played back in February of 2023. Thankfully for Hug, Hailey Calderon-Martinez (who scored 12 points along with five steals) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
