Preview: Las Animas Trojans vs. Walsenburg Panthers
The Las Animas Trojans will face off against the Walsenburg Panthers at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. Hopefully Las Animas focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 22 on Wednesday.
Last Wednesday, Las Animas was able to grind out a solid win over Center, taking the game 44-33. Las Animas pushed the score to 41-20 by the end of the third, a deficit Center cut but never quite recovered from.
It was another big night for Tj Ortiz, who dropped a double-double on 13 points and 12 rebounds. He has been hot recently, having posted ten or more rebounds the last four times he's played. Brander Nichols was another key contributor, scoring 11 points along with five rebounds and three steals.
Meanwhile, Walsenburg beat Hoehne 54-46 on Tuesday. The win made it back-to-back wins for Walsenburg.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Walsenburg to victory, but perhaps none more so than Elton Chavez, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and 16 rebounds. Chavez is crushing the rebound category: he's posted at least nine every time he's taken the court this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Gabe Barela, who went 6 for 9 from beyond the arc en route to 22 points and 1 assist.
Las Animas now has a winning record of 10-9. As for Walsenburg, they are on a roll lately: they've won ten of their last 11 games, which provided a nice bump to their 13-5 record this season.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Las Animas have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 30.7 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Walsenburg struggles in that department as they've been averaging 33.1 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Las Animas came up short against Walsenburg in their previous matchup on February 1st, falling 51-40. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Chavez, who dropped a double-double on 16 points and 19 rebounds. Now that Las Animas knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
