Basketball Recap: Mountain Ridge Snaps Five-Game Streak of Wins at Home

Mountain Ridge was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their fourth straight defeat. They took a 59-49 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Pinnacle Pioneers. Sadly, that's the second time they've come up short against the Mountain Lions this season, as they also lost their prior matchup 88-74 last Friday.

Mountain Ridge's loss came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jagger Cockrell, who went 5 for 7 en route to 13 points and seven boards. Dylan Donovan was another key player, putting up 11 points and five rebounds.

Pinnacle's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Kareem Alkhalifa led the charge by going 6 of 10 on his way to 16 points and eight boards. Alkhalifa's evening made it four games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Cam Hurt, who posted ten points and five rebounds.

Mountain Ridge's defeat ended a five-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 9-12. As for Pinnacle, the win made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 7-14.

Mountain Ridge and Pinnacle could both be facing uphill battles in their next games considering their disadvantage in the MaxPreps Arizona Rankings. Mountain Ridge (ranked 105th) will meet O'Connor (ranked fifth) at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Similarly, Pinnacle will face off against Liberty at 7:00 p.m. on Friday down 61 places (80 vs. 19).