The St. Joseph Academy Crusaders and the Santa Cruz Cardinals will face off at 4:30 p.m. on December 29th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. St. Joseph Academy will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps California Rankings (they are ranked 588th, while Santa Cruz is ranked 251st).
On Thursday, St. Joseph Academy came up short against San Dieguito Academy and fell 39-29.
St. Joseph Academy's loss came about despite a quality game from Luciana Aguilar, who scored 12 points along with nine rebounds and four steals. Aguilar scored a full 41.4% of St. Joseph Academy's points, the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Pamela Torres, who scored seven points along with six rebounds.
Santa Cruz has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won five games by 21 points or more this season. Everything went their way against Trabuco Hills on Thursday as Santa Cruz made off with a 44-23 win. The score was close at the half, but Santa Cruz pulled away in the second half with 28 points.
St. Joseph Academy has been struggling recently, as they've lost six of their last eight games, which put a noticeable dent in their 6-8 record this season. As for Santa Cruz, the victory was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 8-4.
St. Joseph Academy beat Santa Cruz 43-31 in their previous meeting back in December of 2022. Will St. Joseph Academy repeat their success, or does Santa Cruz have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
