Two dominant guards in Aastha Bhagat and Diya Boyapati are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Evergreen Valley Cougars will be playing in front of their home fans against the Leland Chargers at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Evergreen Valley has eight straight wins, Leland has six straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the court.
Last Thursday, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Evergreen Valley beat Willow Glen 50-44. Given the Cougars' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 101st, while the Rams are ranked 358th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
| 01/23/25 vs Willow Glen | 22 |
| 01/21/25 @ Pioneer | 15 |
| 01/16/25 vs Prospect | 21 |
| 01/14/25 vs Branham | 20 |
| 01/09/25 vs Christopher | 30 |
Bhagat continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, putting up 22 points in addition to six rebounds and five assists. The game was her fifth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Diya Dharmashankar, who posted 11 points and five boards.
Meanwhile, Leland was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap on Saturday as they fell 59-55 to Christopher.
Evergreen Valley will have to contain Boyapati as she made an impact in Leland's last game. She went 10 of 19 en route to 24 points along with five rebounds and three steals. The dominant performance gave Boyapati a new career-high in points. Saanvi Gunukula was another key player, earning 11 points and seven steals.
Even though they lost, Leland smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 11 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in four consecutive contests.
Evergreen Valley is on a roll lately: they've won ten of their last 11 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 15-3 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 51.9 points per game. As for Leland, their defeat dropped their record down to 4-13.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Evergreen Valley has been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 26.4 boards per game. However, it's not like Leland struggles in that department as they've been averaging 27.6 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Evergreen Valley strolled past Leland in their previous meeting on January 7th by a score of 57-38. Will Evergreen Valley repeat their success, or does Leland have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
