Preview: Santa Margarita Eagles vs. Linfield Christian Lions
The Santa Margarita Eagles will be home for the holidays to greet the Linfield Christian Lions at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Santa Margarita knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with flashy point totals in its past seven matches -- so hopefully Linfield Christian likes a good challenge.
Santa Margarita has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won five contests by 34 points or more this season. They claimed a resounding 70-30 victory over Mater Dei Catholic on the road. Given Santa Margarita's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 72nd, while Mater Dei Catholic is ranked 310th), the result on Saturday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Linfield Christian pushed their score all the way to 56 on Friday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They fell 63-56 to Murrieta Valley.
Linfield Christian's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Drew Pierce, who scored 20 points along with five rebounds, and Julius Brower who scored 24 points. Brower scored a full 42.9% of Linfield Christian's points, the fourth time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Linfield Christian struggled to work together and finished the game with only three assists. That's the fewest assists they've managed all season.
Santa Margarita's victory bumped their record up to 9-3. As for Linfield Christian, their defeat was their fourth straight on the road dating back to last season, which bumped their record down to 5-6.
