Preview: St. Johns Redskins vs. Valley Pirates
St. Johns has enjoyed a two-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. They will square off against the Valley Pirates at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Hopefully St. Johns focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 16 on Saturday.
In what's become a running theme this season, St. Johns gave their fans yet another huge win on Saturday. They really took it to Hopi for the full four quarters, racking up a 57-23 win at home. Given St. Johns' advantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 25th, while Hopi is ranked 186th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
St. Johns can attribute much of their success to Elli Otto, who scored eight points along with seven steals and five rebounds, and Josie Overson, who scored 14 points along with seven rebounds and three steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Overson has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Kayme Smith, who scored 13 points along with two steals.
Meanwhile, after a string of eight wins, Valley's good fortune finally ran out on Tuesday. They took a 58-54 hit to the loss column at the hands of Round Valley.
St. Johns pushed their record up to 20-5 with that victory, which was their fourth straight at home. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 58.0 points per game. As for Valley, their loss ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 10-6.
St. Johns came up short against Valley in their previous meeting back in February of 2023, falling 61-52. Can St. Johns avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
