Basketball Game Preview: Sangre de Cristo Thunderbirds vs. Trinidad Miners

The Sangre de Cristo Thunderbirds will head out to square off against the Trinidad Miners at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Sangre de Cristo will roll into the matchup after a wild two-game stretch: they only put up 15 points on Friday, then bounced right back against Antonito on Saturday. Sangre de Cristo blew past Antonito 66-16. Considering the Thunderbirds' offense had been struggling lately, the high-scoring outing was a much-needed turnaround.

Meanwhile, everything went Trinidad's way against Raton on Monday as Trinidad made off with a 34-12 victory. The Miners have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won six games by 20 points or more this season.

Trinidad has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 10-8 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 26.3 points over those games. As for Sangre de Cristo, their win bumped their record up to 5-12.

Sangre de Cristo opened the new year with a less-than-successful 48-41 defeat to Trinidad. Can Sangre de Cristo avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.