Basketball Game Preview: Valencia Jaguars vs. Highland Hornets

Valencia is 0-9 against Highland since April of 2021 but things could change on Tuesday. The Valencia Jaguars will be playing in front of their home fans against the Highland Hornets at 7:00 p.m.

Last Friday, Valencia came up short against St. Pius X and fell 46-36. While losing is never fun, the Jaguars can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' New Mexico basketball rankings (they are ranked 63rd, while the Sartans are ranked 12th).

Meanwhile, Highland earned a 73-60 victory over Grants on Friday. The Hornets pushed the score to 57-33 by the end of the third, a deficit the Pirates cut but never quite recovered from.

Valencia's defeat dropped their record down to 9-14. As for Highland, the win got them back to even at 12-12.

Valencia couldn't quite finish off Highland when the teams last played back in January and fell 68-66. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Highland's Jesus Licon, who went 9-for-17 en route to 31 points and five assists. Now that Valencia knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.