Basketball Game Preview: Sabino Sabercats vs. Safford Bulldogs

The Sabino Sabercats will venture away from home to face off against the Safford Bulldogs at 5:30 p.m. on Monday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Sabino is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They claimed a resounding 71-20 victory over Tanque Verde. Given the Sabercats' advantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 78th, while the Hawks are ranked 252nd), the result on Wednesday wasn't entirely unexpected.

Jayda Haley continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, almost dropping a double-double on 26 points and nine steals. She is trending in the right direction considering she's improved her point production for three straight games. Marie Gomez-Munoz was another key player, going 5 of 11 en route to 10 points along with five blocks and four steals.

Safford hasn't had quite the year their fans were hoping for to this point, but back-to-back wins may be a sign of good things to come. They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat The Gregory School 42-12.

Safford is also on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a massive bump to their 5-11 record this season. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 21.8 points per game. As for Sabino, the win (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 14-9.

Sabino strolled past Safford in their previous meeting back in February of 2024 by a score of 61-46. The rematch might be a little tougher for Sabino since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.