Preview: Sunnyside Blue Devils vs. Catalina Foothills Falcons
Sunnyside has enjoyed the comforts of home their last three games, but now they'll head out on the road. The Sunnyside Blue Devils and the Catalina Foothills Falcons will face off at 7:00 p.m. on December 11th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. One thing working in Sunnyside's favor is that they have posted big point totals in their last five matches.
Even though Sunnyside has not done well against Pueblo recently (they were 1-8 in their previous nine matchups), they didn't let the past get in their way on Wednesday. Sunnyside walked away with a 64-56 win over Pueblo. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Sunnyside can attribute much of their success to Ylena Gross, who scored 19 points, and Nayeli Nidez-Acu?a, who dropped a double-double on 24 points and 24 rebounds. That makes it four consecutive games in which Nidez-Acu?a has scored at least 25% of Sunnyside's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Esabella Barajas, who scored 7 points.
Meanwhile, even though Cienega scored an imposing 55 points on Thursday, Catalina Foothills still came out on top. Catalina Foothills snuck past Cienega with a 60-55 victory.
Clara-Mae Hrouch continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 29 points along with 5 rebounds. The game was her sixth in a row with at least ten points. Kayanna Chief was another key contributor, scoring 9 points along with 12 rebounds and 8 steals.
Sunnyside pushed their record up to 9-1 with that win, which was their third straight at home. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 67.0 points per game. As for Catalina Foothills, they are on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a massive bump to their 4-5 record this season.
Keep an eye on the arc in Monday's match: Sunnyside have been dynamite from deep this season, having only made 36.4% of their threes per game. It's a different story for Catalina Foothills, though, as they've only made 33.4% of theirs this season. Given Sunnyside's sizeable advantage in that area, Catalina Foothills will need to find a way to close that gap. Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.
Sunnyside lost to Catalina Foothills on the road by a decisive 44-25 margin in their previous meeting back in December of 2022. Can Sunnyside avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
