Basketball Recap: Santa Ana Comes Up Short

If Santa Ana was feeling good fresh off their 65-37 takedown of Buena Park last Friday, their most recent game may have dampened their spirits a bit. The Santa Ana Saints took a 68-52 bruising from the Valencia Tigers on Wednesday. While losing is never fun, the Saints can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 1007th, while the Tigers are ranked 402nd).

Despite the loss, Santa Ana still got an impressive performance from Aaron Rivera, who posted 23 points. The dominant performance gave Rivera a new career-high in points. Another player making a difference was Issac Alvarez, who earned 12 points.

Santa Ana has been struggling recently as they've lost ten of their last 12 contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 6-16 record this season. As for Valencia, the victory (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 18-7.

Both squads are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. Santa Ana has already played their next matchup (against Westminster), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing. Valencia will welcome Buena Park at 6:15 p.m. on Friday. The timing is sure in Valencia's favor as the team sits on six straight wins at home (dating back to last season) while Buena Park has been banged up by three consecutive losses on the road.