Preview: Hilmar Yellowjackets vs. Escalon Cougars
Hilmar is 1-9 against Escalon since February of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Hilmar Yellowjackets will be playing in front of their home fans against the Escalon Cougars at 7:00 p.m. Hilmar has now lost 11 straight, and the team is hunting for their first win since December 29.
Hilmar pushed their score all the way to 66 on Wednesday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a 74-66 hit to the loss column at the hands of Livingston. Hilmar has not had much luck with Livingston recently, as the team's come up short the last three times they've met.
Despite the loss, Hilmar saw an underclassman step up: Xavier Silveira scored 20 points. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Silveira has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Seth Russel, who scored 11 points.
Meanwhile, Escalon stacked a 12th blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Wednesday. They put the hurt on Hughson with a sharp 70-46 victory. Given Escalon's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 353rd, while Hughson is ranked 884th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Hilmar has not been sharp recently as the team's lost 14 of their last 15 matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 5-22 record this season. As for Escalon, the victory makes it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 21-6.
Hilmar took a serious blow against Escalon in their previous matchup back in January, falling 71-27. The matchup was all but decided by halftime, at which point Hilmar was down 52-16.
