Basketball Game Preview: Palo Verde Valley Yellow Jackets vs. Southwest EC Eagles

The Palo Verde Valley Yellow Jackets will head out on the road to square off against the Southwest EC Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Palo Verde Valley is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 54.5 points per game this season.

On Friday, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Palo Verde Valley beat Holtville 51-46.

Zaraivion Crowe was his usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 17 points and 12 boards. The game was his 14th in a row with at least ten points. Erico Ramirez was another key player, almost dropping a double-double on 11 points and nine rebounds.

Palo Verde Valley smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 12 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 11 offensive boards in six consecutive matchups.

Meanwhile, Southwest EC was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their fourth straight defeat. They came up short against Brawley, falling 61-38. While losing is never fun, the Eagles can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 1235th, while the Wildcats are ranked 570th).

Palo Verde Valley is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a massive bump to their 9-13 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.3 points per game. As for Southwest EC, their loss dropped their record down to 4-18.

Palo Verde Valley didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Southwest EC when the teams last played last Friday, but they still walked away with a 69-63 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Palo Verde Valley since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.