Preview: Cuba Rams vs. Mesa Vista Trojans
The Cuba Rams will be home for the holidays to greet the Mesa Vista Trojans at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. Hopefully Cuba focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 27 on Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, Cuba came up short against Crownpoint and fell 43-34. The defeat unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Cuba in their matchups with Crownpoint: they've now lost five in a row.
Defeat or not, Cuba got some senior leadership from Emma Yazzie who scored 12 points along with seven rebounds and Liliana Maestas who scored 11 points along with eight rebounds and four steals. That's the first time this season that Maestas pulled down eight or more rebounds.
Even though they lost, Cuba were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with 18 offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, the third road matchup was the charm for Mesa Vista, as they earned their first road win of the season. They blew past Non Varsity Opponent 74-54.
Tana Lopez continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 30 points along with eight steals. That makes it four consecutive games in which she has scored at least 25% of Mesa Vista's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kylie Torrez , who scored five points along with five rebounds.
Cuba bumped their record down to 1-3 with that defeat, which was their fourth straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Mesa Vista, the victory got them back to even at 2-2.
Keep an eye on the arc in Saturday's game: Cuba have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 4.8 threes per game. However, it's not like Mesa Vista struggles in that department as they've been averaging only 5.5 threes per game. Given Cuba's sizeable advantage in that area, Mesa Vista will need to find a way to close that gap.
Cuba suffered a grim 58-38 defeat to Mesa Vista in their previous matchup back in January. Will Cuba have more luck at home instead of on the road? Come back here after the game to get analysis of the match and other basketball content.
