Basketball Recap: Maisa Azar's Big Game Can't Quite Lead College Park over American

College Park lost against American back in December of 2023 and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Saturday. The College Park Falcons fell 49-42 to the American Eagles. While losing is never fun, the Falcons can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 871st, while the Eagles are ranked 193rd).

College Park lost despite a true team effort on offense, the best among them being Maisa Azar, who posted eight points along with ten boards and three steals. Azar is on a roll when it comes to boards, as she's now pulled down nine or more in the last three games she's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Athena Alkhoury, who put up ten points.

Falcons

Previous 4 Games

12/14/24 vs American	42-49
12/12/24 vs St. Patrick-St. Vincent	41-58
12/10/24 vs Granada	25-42
12/07/24 vs Milpitas	20-38

Even though they lost, College Park smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 12 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least nine offensive rebounds in five consecutive matches.

American was led to victory by Shirina Shi and Anika Batra. Shi went 9 of 21 on her way to 25 points and three steals, while Batra had ten points and seven rebounds. That makes it six consecutive games in which Shi has scored at least a third of American's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Siya Kulkarni, who posted six points.

College Park's loss dropped their record down to 2-6. As for American, the victory was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 5-1.

College Park didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next contest, a 56-44 defeat against Las Lomas on the 20th. As for American, they also wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next game, a 64-35 win against Newark Memorial on the 17th.