Basketball Game Preview: Deer Valley Wolverines vs. Antioch Panthers

Deer Valley and Antioch are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2020, but not for long. The Deer Valley Wolverines will head out to challenge the Antioch Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.

Deer Valley is headed into the game out to prove that what happened against Freedom last Tuesday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Deer Valley was dealt a 98-48 defeat at the hands of Freedom. The Wolverines were in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 49-15.

Despite the loss, Deer Valley got top-tier performance from Josh Bickham, who posted 15 points and eight rebounds. Those 15 points gave Bickham a new career-high. Dominic Dolojan was another key player, putting up ten points and seven boards.

Meanwhile, Antioch was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their fourth straight defeat. They received a blow as they fell 61-44 to Liberty. While losing is never fun, the Panthers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 618th, while the Lions are ranked 34th).

Antioch's loss dropped their record down to 6-15. As for Deer Valley, their defeat dropped their record down to 4-16.

Deer Valley lost to Antioch on the road by a decisive 65-47 margin in their previous matchup on January 7th. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Antioch's Devin Simes, who earned 14 points and six assists. Now that Deer Valley knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.