Basketball Game Preview: River Valley Dust Devils vs. Yuma Catholic Shamrocks

River Valley is 0-7 against Yuma Catholic since January of 2015 but things could change on Saturday. The two teams will face off at 3:00 p.m. without much rest having both just played. River Valley has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games.

It's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 91-60, which was the final score in River Valley's tilt against ALA - West Foothills on Friday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Tuesday (58), the Dust Devils still had to take the loss.

Meanwhile, Yuma Catholic had already won eight in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 16.3 points) and they went ahead and made it nine on Friday. They breezed by the Phoenix to the tune of 63-14. Given the Shamrocks' advantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 29th, while the Phoenix are ranked 311th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Yuma Catholic is also on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 12 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 14-2 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.8 points per game. As for River Valley, their loss dropped their record down to 5-8.

River Valley was dealt a bruising 82-21 defeat at the hands of Yuma Catholic in their previous meeting back in February of 2024. Will River Valley have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.