Basketball Game Preview: Maryvale Panthers vs. Camelback Spartans

Maryvale and Camelback are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2015, but not for long. Having just played yesterday, the Maryvale Panthers will head out on the road to face off against the Camelback Spartans at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: both posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.

On Thursday, Maryvale was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap as they fell 70-65 to Tolleson. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Tuesday (55), the Panthers still had to take the loss.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Camelback). They blew past South Mountain 101-79 on Thursday. The victory was nothing new for the Spartans as they're now sitting on three straight.

Camelback has also been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 7-13 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 76.8 points per game. As for Maryvale, their loss dropped their record down to 12-10.

Maryvale was able to grind out a solid win over Camelback when the teams last played back in January, winning 81-70. The rematch might be a little tougher for Maryvale since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.