Basketball Recap: Savanna Snaps Four-Game Streak of Wins at Home

If Savanna was feeling good fresh off their 78-37 takedown of Estancia last Friday, their most recent game may have dampened their spirits a bit. The Savanna Rebels fell 57-50 to the Santiago Cavaliers on Tuesday. The Rebels were not able to repeat the success they had when they faced the Cavaliers earlier this season, when they won 68-51.

Mathys Rudel

Rebounds (Career)

01/28/25 vs Santiago	18
01/07/25 vs Estancia	17
12/11/24 vs La Quinta	13
12/13/24 vs Esperanza	13
01/17/25 @ Rancho Alamitos	13

Savanna's loss came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Mathys Rudel, who dropped a double-double on 12 points and 18 rebounds. The dominant performance gave Rudel a new career-high in boards. Another player making a difference was Joachim Bikoula, who went 5 for 7 on his way to 10 points and six rebounds.

Even though they lost, Savanna smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 16 offensive boards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 3 offensive rebounds per game earlier this season, but in their last 15 matches they've averaged 16.4.

Savanna's defeat ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 15-8. As for Santiago, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 16-10 record this season.

Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Savanna has already played their next game (against Los Amigos), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing. Santiago will head out to take on Rancho Alamitos at 6:00 p.m. on Friday.