Preview: Imperial Tigers vs. Central Spartans
Imperial is 0-8 against Central since January of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Imperial Tigers will head out on the road to square off against the Central Spartans at 7:00 p.m. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the pair posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Vincent Memorial typically has all the answers at home, but on Friday Imperial proved too difficult a challenge. They walked away with a 60-52 victory over the Scots. The victory was all the more spectacular given Imperial's disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 825th, while Vincent Memorial is ranked 409th).
David Scariano was his usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 28 points and 18 rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points he has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Marc Vitela, who scored ten points along with five rebounds and two steals.
Meanwhile, Central had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 17 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They came out on top against Calexico by a score of 60-51.
Central's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jared Martin, who scored 21 points along with six rebounds. Martin has been hot recently, having posted 15 or more points the last ten times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of David Lopez, who scored 17 points.
Imperial is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a massive bump to their 7-14 record this season. As for Central, the victory got them back to even at 10-10.
Imperial ended up a good deal behind Central in their previous matchup back in May of 2021, losing 62-43. Thankfully for Imperial, Jordan Reed (who dropped a double-double on 20 points and 14 rebounds) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
