Basketball Game Preview: La Sierra Academy Knights vs. California Lutheran C-Hawks

La Sierra Academy hasn't had much luck against California Lutheran recently, but that could start to change on Thursday. The La Sierra Academy Knights will be playing in front of their home fans against the California Lutheran C-Hawks at 6:00 p.m.

Last Tuesday, La Sierra Academy had to suffer through a 66-28 loss at the hands of Sherman Indian. The Knights have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask California Lutheran). They breezed by United Christian Academy to the tune of 81-23 on Tuesday. The C-Hawks have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won nine matchups by 23 points or more this season.

La Sierra Academy better focus on containing Ethan Ash and Tyler Treder as the pair were huge in California Lutheran's win. Ash dropped a double-double on 34 points and 15 rebounds, while Treder dropped a double-double on 32 points and 18 boards. The contest was Ash's 24th in a row with at least ten points. Jonas Vogel was another key player, putting up four points and eight boards.

California Lutheran smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 21 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive boards in 12 consecutive games.

California Lutheran is on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last 12 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 13-8 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 68.3 points per game. As for La Sierra Academy, their loss dropped their record down to 1-7.

La Sierra Academy took a serious blow against California Lutheran in their previous matchup on January 14th, falling 79-22. That contest was all but decided by halftime, at which point La Sierra Academy was down 55-21.