Preview: Santa Paula Cardinals vs. Malibu Sharks
Santa Paula is 8-0 against Malibu since January of 2019, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Tuesday. The Santa Paula Cardinals will head out on the road to face off against the Malibu Sharks at 6:30 p.m. Malibu took a loss in their last matchup and will be looking to turn the tables on Santa Paula, who comes in off a win.
Santa Paula can now show off eight landslide victories after their most recent contest on Friday. Everything went their way against Nordhoff as Santa Paula made off with a 53-29 victory. Given Santa Paula's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 484th, while Nordhoff is ranked 980th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Santa Paula to victory, but perhaps none more so than Aryanna Lopez, who scored 26 points along with two steals. That makes it three consecutive games in which Lopez has scored at least a third of Santa Paula's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Alyse Ramirez, who scored 12 points along with six steals and five rebounds.
Meanwhile, Malibu ended up a good deal behind Carpinteria on Friday and lost 54-36.
Santa Paula pushed their record up to 13-8 with that win, which was their fifth straight at home. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 57.2 points per game. As for Malibu, they have not been sharp recently, as they've lost four of their last five contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 6-6 record this season.
Santa Paula didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Malibu in their previous matchup back in January of 2023, but they still walked away with a 36-30 win. Will Santa Paula repeat their success, or does Malibu have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
