Basketball Game Preview: Tempe Buffaloes vs. Desert Sunrise Golden Hawks

Two dominant guards in Nassir Cobbs and Ky'Jaun Mccutcheon are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Tempe Buffaloes will be playing in front of their home fans against the Desert Sunrise Golden Hawks at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have had a bumpy ride up to this point with six consecutive losses for Tempe and three for Desert Sunrise.

Tempe is headed into the match out to prove that what happened against Yuma on Tuesday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Tempe had to suffer through a 70-39 loss at the hands of Yuma. The Buffaloes were down 64-31 at the end of the third quarter, which was just too much to recover from.

Meanwhile, Desert Sunrise lost 67-41 to Cortez on Friday. While losing is never fun, the Golden Hawks can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 274th, while the Colts are ranked 90th).

Tempe will need focus on slowing down Mccutcheon, one of several Desert Sunrise players who made an impact when they last played. He posted 14 points. That was a full 34.1% of Desert Sunrise's points, marking the 17th time in a row he's scored more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Savieon Terry, who had 11 points.

Desert Sunrise's loss dropped their record down to 4-19. As for Tempe, their defeat dropped their record down to 10-15.

Tempe couldn't quite finish off Desert Sunrise in their previous matchup two weeks ago and fell 67-65. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Mccutcheon, who put up 25 points. Now that Tempe knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.