Basketball Preview: Liberty Ranch Hawks vs. Futures Knights
The Liberty Ranch Hawks will square off against the Futures Knights at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Futures took a loss in their last game and will be looking to turn the tables on Liberty Ranch, who comes in off a win.
Liberty Ranch will head into Saturday's contest on the come-up: they were handed a two-point defeat in their last match, but they sure didn't let that happen against Orestimba on Saturday. Liberty Ranch put the hurt on Orestimba with a sharp 64-41 victory. The Hawks pushed the score to 50-26 by the end of the third, a deficit the Warriors cut but never quite recovered from.
Derek Nelson was nothing short of spectacular: he went 7 for 15 en route to 19 points plus five rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Jimmy Lopez, who posted seven points along with five rebounds.
Liberty Ranch smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 13 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in six consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Futures came up short against Head-Royce on Saturday and fell 57-46. The Knights have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Despite the loss, Futures got top-tier performance from Daniel Kozlov, who dropped a double-double on 26 points and 11 rebounds. With that strong performance, Kozlov is now averaging an impressive 16.7 points per game. Chris Collins was another key player, posting eight points plus five rebounds.
Futures' defeat dropped their record down to 3-2. As for Liberty Ranch, their win ended a three-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 2-1.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Liberty Ranch has been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 35.3 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Futures struggles in that department as they've been averaging 41. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other basketball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
