Alief Hastings and Alief Taylor are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2020, but not for long. The Alief Hastings Bears will head out to square off against the Alief Taylor Lions at 1:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Alief Hastings has struggled recently with three defeats in a row, while Alief Taylor will arrive with three straight victories.
Last Friday, Alief Hastings came up short against Fulshear and fell 50-40. While losing is never fun, the Bears can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 1055th, while the Chargers are ranked 488th).
Despite the loss, Alief Hastings had strong showings from Giovanni Bernal, who went 5 of 11 on his way to 14 points, and Marcos Arencibia, who posted ten points.
Meanwhile, in a tight matchup that could have gone either way, Alief Taylor made off with a 45-44 win over Trinity.
Alief Hastings better keep an eye on Tae Malik. He was instrumental in Alief Taylor's win, going 7 of 12 on his way to 18 points. Those 18 points gave Malik a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Sean Kongolo, who had eight points and five assists.
Alief Taylor has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 7-13 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 60.4 points per game. As for Alief Hastings, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-11.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Alief Hastings has been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 27.6 boards per game. However, it's not like Alief Taylor struggles in that department as they've been averaging 25.5 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Alief Hastings lost to Alief Taylor on the road by a decisive 61-47 margin when the teams last played back in January. Can Alief Hastings avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
