Basketball Preview: Palo Verde Titans vs. Tanque Verde Hawks
The Palo Verde Titans and the Tanque Verde Hawks will face off at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.
Palo Verde is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They blew past Flowing Wells 84-44 on Friday. The Titans have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won three contests by 40 points or more this season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Palo Verde to victory, but perhaps none more so than Daniel Ortiz, who went 10 for 17 en route to 29 points plus eight steals and seven rebounds. Ortiz is crushing it when it comes to steals: he's grabbed at least two every time he's taken the court this season. Adrian Powers was another key player, dropping a double-double on 19 points and ten rebounds.
Palo Verde smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with ten offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least ten offensive rebounds in four consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, Tanque Verde didn't have too much trouble with Sahuarita on Friday as they won 71-56.
Philip Knott and Ryan Johnson were among the main playmakers for Tanque Verde as the former went 6 for 14 en route to 15 points plus seven rebounds and two steals and the latter dropped a double-double on 13 points and 11 rebounds. Another player making a difference was Rocco Haggard, who dropped a double-double on 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Palo Verde's victory bumped their record up to 3-1. As for Tanque Verde, the win got them back to even at 2-2.
Keep an eye on the arc in Saturday's match: Palo Verde has been dynamite from deep this season, having made 39.1% of their threes per game. It's a different story for Tanque Verde, though, as they've only made 28.4% of their threes this season. Given Palo Verde's sizable advantage in that area, Tanque Verde will need to find a way to close that gap.
Palo Verde took their victory against Tanque Verde when the teams last played back in February by a conclusive 78-57. The rematch might be a little tougher for Palo Verde since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
