Preview: Bel Air Highlanders vs. El Paso Tigers
Bel Air has been on the road for four straight, but on Friday they'll finally head home. They will be home for the holidays to greet the El Paso Tigers at 7:30 p.m. Both teams come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Last Tuesday, Bel Air beat Canutillo 47-35. Given Bel Air's advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 236th, while Canutillo is ranked 553rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Bel Air's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Adalyn Palomo, who scored 18 points along with three steals. The contest was Palomo's sixth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Jayde Martinez, who scored ten points along with five assists and five rebounds.
Meanwhile, El Paso didn't have too much trouble with Del Valle at home on Tuesday as they won 51-36. The victory made it back-to-back wins for El Paso.
El Paso got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Amaris Ambriz out in front who scored 23 points along with five assists and five rebounds. Ambriz has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last six times she's played. Natalia Thomas was another key contributor, dropping a double-double on 15 points and ten rebounds.
Bel Air pushed their record up to 13-2 with that victory, which was their 12th straight on the road dating back to last season. As for El Paso, they have been performing well recently as they've won 11 of their last 13 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 16-3 record this season.
Everything went Bel Air's way against El Paso in their previous matchup back in November as Bel Air made off with a 59-36 win. With Bel Air ahead 34-11 at the half, the matchup was all but over already.
