Preview: Granite Bay Grizzlies vs. Del Oro Golden Eagles
The Granite Bay Grizzlies will be playing in front of their home fans against the Del Oro Golden Eagles at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Wednesday, Granite Bay came up short against Rocklin and fell 73-60. While losing is never fun, Granite Bay can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 364th, while Rocklin is ranked 39th).
Meanwhile, you can't lose the contest if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Del Oro's strategy against Oak Ridge on Wednesday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Del Oro blew Oak Ridge out of the water with a 66-39 final score. Del Oro pushed the score to 52-28 by the end of the third, a deficit Oak Ridge had little chance of recovering from.
It was another big night for Jake Williams, who scored 24 points along with five rebounds. He has been hot recently, having posted 16 or more points the last three times he's played. Caden Pinnick was another key contributor, scoring five points along with 13 rebounds and eight assists.
Granite Bay has traveled a rocky road recently having lost four of their last five matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 8-19 record this season. As for Del Oro, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 20-7 record this season.
Granite Bay didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Del Oro in their previous matchup back in January, but they still walked away with a 53-47 win. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Pinnick, who almost dropped a double-double on 20 points and nine rebounds. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Granite Bay still be able to contain Pinnick? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
