Basketball Game Preview: Santana Sultans vs. West Hills Wolf Pack

Santana is 2-8 against West Hills since February of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Santana Sultans will host the West Hills Wolf Pack at 5:30 p.m. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Santana comes in on three and West Hills on four.

Santana is headed into the matchup after thoroughly thrashing Mount Miguel: they outscored them in every quarter. Santana was the clear victor by a 39-18 margin over Mount Miguel on Tuesday. The Sultans have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won eight games by 21 points or more this season.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Santana to victory, but perhaps none more so than Sam Mora, who posted 12 points and three steals. Mora has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last three times she's played. Harper Diaz was another key player, putting up seven points in addition to 14 boards and seven steals.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask West Hills). They breezed by Valhalla to the tune of 69-27 on Tuesday. Given the Wolf Pack's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 320th, while the Norsemen are ranked 1123rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

West Hills had a senior duo take command as Jordan Dillon went 9 of 19 on her way to 26 points along with eight rebounds and four steals and Ava Kinser went 6 for 15 en route to 18 points and six steals. That makes it three consecutive games in which Dillon has scored at least a third of West Hills' points. Another player making a difference was Kaelyn Roberson, who went 6 of 8 on her way to 12 points.

West Hills smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 23 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in five consecutive contests.

West Hills' win bumped their record up to 13-6. As for Santana, their victory bumped their record up to 17-4.

Santana lost to West Hills at home by a decisive 49-32 margin in their previous matchup back in January of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Dillon, who went 9 for 20 en route to 24 points in addition to six steals and five assists. Now that Santana knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.