Preview: San Jacinto Tigers vs. Hemet Bulldogs
The San Jacinto Tigers are on the road again on Thursday and play against the Hemet Bulldogs at 6:15 p.m. on December 7th. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Last Saturday, San Jacinto earned a 73-64 victory over Yucaipa.
Josiah Mejia and Stephen Castleberry were among the main playmakers for San Jacinto as the former scored 23 points along with 7 assists and 7 steals and the latter scored 30 points along with 6 assists and 5 steals. That makes it five consecutive games in which Mejia has scored at least 25% of San Jacinto's points. Brian Kincherlow was another key contributor, scoring 10 points.
Meanwhile, Hemet had already won five in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 15.8 points), and they went ahead and made it six on Tuesday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Miller 76-38 at home. Given Hemet's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 97th, while Miller is ranked 1076th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
It was another big night for Juaquin Martinez, who scored 27 points. The matchup was his 11th in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Matthew Torres, who scored 15 points.
Their wins bumped San Jacinto to 4-4 and Yucaipa to 3-4.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as San Jacinto and Hemet are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. San Jacinto hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having only averaged 60.1 points per game. It's a different story for Hemet, though, as they've been averaging only 62.9 per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run up the score up higher Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other basketball content.
San Jacinto beat Hemet 58-46 in their previous matchup back in May of 2021. The rematch might be a little tougher for San Jacinto since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
