Basketball Game Preview: La Cueva Bears vs. Sandia Matadors

The La Cueva Bears will challenge the Sandia Matadors at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are strolling into their contests after big wins in their previous games.

Last Tuesday, La Cueva made easy work of Manzano and carried off a 74-52 victory. Given the Bears' advantage in MaxPreps' New Mexico basketball rankings (they are ranked tenth, while the Monarchs are ranked 70th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Sandia had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 32 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Tuesday. They were the clear victor by an 83-60 margin over the Demons. The Matadors have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won ten matchups by 20 points or more this season.

La Cueva better keep an eye on Thomas Adams. He was instrumental in Sandia's win, almost dropping a double-double on 28 points and nine rebounds. The dominant performance gave Adams a new career-high in points. Isaiah Brown was another key player, putting up 17 points in addition to six assists and five boards.

Sandia was working as a unit and finished the game with 21 assists. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now racked up at least 20 assists in seven consecutive games.

La Cueva pushed their record up to 13-8 with the win, which was their fourth straight on the road. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 75.5 points per game. As for Sandia, they are on a roll lately: they've won 13 of their last 15 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 18-3 record this season.

La Cueva didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Sandia in their previous matchup two weeks ago, but they still walked away with an 80-74 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for La Cueva since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.