Basketball Recap: Tulare Western Sets Scoring Season-High Against Mission Oak

Winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Tulare Western). They blew past the Mission Oak Hawks 102-66 on Thursday. The Mustangs have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won six contests by 21 points or more this season.

Malachi Ficher continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, dropping a double-double on 46 points and 11 boards. That makes it three consecutive games in which he has scored at least a third of Tulare Western's points. Carson Miller also deserves some recognition as he posted his first block of the season.

Mustangs

Offensive Rebounds

01/09/25 @ Mission Oak	20
12/06/23 vs Chavez	20
11/21/24 vs Hanford West	17
11/28/23 @ Porterville	16
12/21/24 vs Immanuel	16

Tulare Western smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 20 offensive boards. That's the most offensive rebounds they've posted since back in December of 2023.

When it comes to explaining why Mission Oak lost, don't look at Malakai Rodriguez. Despite the final result, he went 8 for 14 from beyond the arc en route to 42 points and seven rebounds. Rodriguez has been hot, having also posted two or more steals the last five times he's played. Ian Cruz was another key player, putting up six points and four steals.

The victory was the third in a row for Tulare Western, bringing their record for this year to 12-7. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 73.7 points per game. As for Mission Oak, they now have a losing record at 8-9.

Tulare Western didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next matchup, an 82-59 win against Dinuba on the 14th. As for Mission Oak, they also wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next game, an 86-62 defeat against Lemoore on the 14th.