Basketball Preview: Huntington Beach Oilers vs. University Trojans
The Huntington Beach Oilers will square off against the University Trojans at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. Given that the two teams suffered a loss in their last game, they both have a little extra motivation heading into this match.
Huntington Beach will head into Wednesday's game out to bounce back: they lost a heartbreaker on Wednesday after a huge 26-point win in their prior game. They fell just short of Aliso Niguel by a score of 64-62. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest loss the Oilers have suffered since January 17th.
Meanwhile, University unfortunately witnessed the end of their four-game winning streak dating back to last season on Tuesday. They took a 55-42 hit to the loss column at the hands of Beckman. The loss was the Trojans' first of the season.
Despite their defeat, University saw several players rise to the challenge and make noteworthy plays. Isaac Evans, who posted 17 points along with five rebounds and two blocks, was perhaps the best of all. That was a full 40.5% of University's points, marking the third time in a row he's posted more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Eli Pretto, who went 5 for 8 en route to 10 points plus three steals.
Even though they lost, University smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with ten offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least ten offensive rebounds in five consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
Having lost for the first time this season, University fell to 3-1. As for Huntington Beach, they now have a losing record at 2-3.
Huntington Beach was able to grind out a solid victory over University in their previous matchup back in December of 2023, winning 81-74. The rematch might be a little tougher for Huntington Beach since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
