Basketball Game Preview: Roosevelt Rough Riders vs. Liberty Patriots

The Roosevelt Rough Riders will face off against the Liberty Patriots at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Roosevelt is headed into Saturday's game hungry for a win as their strong season has now been derailed by two straight defeats. They were dealt a 70-12 loss at the hands of Bullard on Thursday. The contest marked the Rough Riders' lowest-scoring matchup so far this season.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Liberty). They claimed a resounding 72-27 victory over Stockdale. Given the Patriots' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 432nd, while the Mustangs are ranked 920th), the result on Thursday wasn't entirely unexpected.

Roosevelt better keep an eye on Ellee Statler. She was instrumental in Liberty's win, going 14 for 21 en route to 30 points and six steals. The game was Statler's third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Nevaeh Matthews, who went 6 of 8 on her way to 15 points in addition to six rebounds and three steals.

The win made it two in a row for Liberty and bumps their season record up to 9-10. As for Roosevelt, their defeat dropped their record down to 17-5.

Roosevelt and Liberty were neck-and-neck in their previous meeting on January 3rd, but Roosevelt came up empty-handed after a 51-50 loss. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Statler, who almost dropped a double-double on 26 points and nine boards. Now that Roosevelt knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.