Preview: Rancho Mirage Rattlers vs. Shadow Hills Knights
Rancho Mirage is 1-9 against the Knights since January of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Rancho Mirage Rattlers will head out on the road to face off against the Shadow Hills Knights at 6:30 p.m. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Rancho Mirage has struggled recently with 20 losses in a row, while the Knights will arrive with seven straight wins.
Last Tuesday, Rancho Mirage was the victim of a tough 39-18 defeat at the hands of the Blackhawks.
Meanwhile, Shadow Hills put the finishing touches on their 11th blowout victory of the season on Tuesday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Palm Desert 56-17 at home. Given Shadow Hills' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 105th, while the Aztecs are ranked 578th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Skylah Archer and Victoria Hyatt were among the main playmakers for Shadow Hills as the former almost dropped a double-double on ten points and nine rebounds and the latter scored 22 points along with eight rebounds and five assists. Archer hasn't dropped below two steals for ten straight games. Another player making a difference was Mia Gonzalez, who scored four points along with five rebounds and four steals.
Rancho Mirage dropped their record down to 0-20 with that defeat, which was their tenth straight at home. Those losses could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 16.0 points per game. As for Shadow Hills, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won ten of their last 11 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 23-4 record this season.
Rancho Mirage took a serious blow against the Knights when the teams last played back in January, falling 86-5. Can Rancho Mirage avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
