Basketball Game Preview: Mora Rangers/Rangerettes vs. Mesa Vista Trojans

Mora hasn't had much luck against Mesa Vista recently, but that could start to change on Saturday. The Mora Rangers/Rangerettes will head out on the road to face off against the Mesa Vista Trojans at 1:30 p.m. Both come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Mora will bounce into Saturday's game after beating Escalante, who they had gone 2-7 against in their nine prior meetings. Mora took down Escalante 37-23 on Thursday. The Rangers/Rangerettes haven't had any issues with the Lobos recently, as the game was their third consecutive win against them.

Meanwhile, Mesa Vista came tearing into Thursday's contest with ten straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 24.4 points), and they left with even more momentum. They came within six points of losing the streak, but they secured a 49-43 W against the Panthers. Given the Trojans' advantage in MaxPreps' New Mexico basketball rankings (they are ranked 30th, while the Panthers are ranked 96th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Mesa Vista pushed their record up to 22-3 with the victory, which was their eighth straight at home. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.1 points over those games. As for Mora, their win bumped their record up to 12-13.

Mora ended up a good deal behind Mesa Vista in their previous meeting two weeks ago, losing 55-37. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Mesa Vista's Tana Lopez, who went 6-for-14 to rack up 17 points along with eight rebounds and three steals. Now that Mora knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.