Basketball Game Preview: Piner Prospectors vs. St. Vincent de Paul Mustangs

Two dominant guards in Apollo Pereira and Dylan Chelew are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Piner Prospectors are taking a road trip to face off against the St. Vincent de Paul Mustangs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Piner is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 58.2 points per game this season.

Last Wednesday, Piner took their contest with ease, bagging a 59-28 win over Elsie Allen. Given the Prospectors' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 403rd, while the Lobos are ranked 1000th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Piner's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Brendan Walker, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and 12 rebounds. Walker has been hot for a while, having posted eight or more boards the last 14 times he's played. Camden Brasil was another key player, dropping a double-double on 14 points and ten rebounds.

Meanwhile, St. Vincent de Paul unfortunately witnessed the end of their four-game winning streak on Wednesday. They fell just short of Ukiah by a score of 53-50.

Piner has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 11-8 record this season. As for St. Vincent de Paul, their defeat ended a seven-game streak of away wins dating back to last season and brought them to 11-5.

Piner was able to grind out a solid victory over St. Vincent de Paul when the teams last played back in February of 2022, winning 50-40. Will Piner repeat their success, or does St. Vincent de Paul have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.