Two dominant guards in Thalia Chavez and Kalysa Phanhsavang are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Tokay Tigers will look to defend their home court on Thursday against the McNair Eagles at 7:30 p.m. Tokay is coming into the matchup hot, having won their last five games.
Tokay is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They blew past Turlock 59-16 on Tuesday. With the Tigers ahead 41-7 at the half, the contest was all but over already.
| 01/07/25 vs Turlock | 19 |
| 01/06/25 @ Galt | 18 |
| 01/03/25 vs River Islands | 19 |
Tokay's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Chavez led the charge by putting up 19 points and five steals. Chavez's evening made it three games in a row in which she has scored at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Aria Khan, who posted ten points and six steals.
Meanwhile, it was a Battle of the Birds when McNair faced off against Del Oro on Saturday. McNair fell 55-42 to Del Oro. While losing is never fun, the Eagles can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 435th, while the Golden Eagles are ranked 122nd).
Tokay will need focus on slowing down Malia Do, one of several McNair players who made an impact when they last played. She earned ten points and eight rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Anjulie Navarro, who put up 13 points and five steals.
Tokay has been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 13-6 record this season. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 23.8 points per game. As for McNair, their defeat was their third straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 7-10.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Tokay has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 33.7 rebounds per game. However, it's not like McNair struggles in that department as they've been averaging 26.4 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Tokay ended up a good deal behind McNair when the teams last played back in December of 2024, losing 51-34. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Phanhsavang, who almost dropped a double-double on 24 points and nine steals. Now that Tokay knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
