The Highland Prep Honey Badgers and the John Paul II Cardinals will round out the year against one another at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday at. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Highland Prep came tearing into two weeks ago's contest with three straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 47.7 points) and they left with even more momentum. They claimed a resounding 90-24 win over Tonopah Valley at home. Given Highland Prep's advantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 147th, while Tonopah Valley is ranked 329th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Highland Prep relied on the efforts of Kohen Hill, who scored 22 points along with eight steals and five assists, and Presley Ibeh, who dropped a double-double on 25 points and 12 rebounds. Ibeh set a new season high mark in assists with six. The team also got some help courtesy of Tarrell Green, who scored 11 points along with six rebounds.
Meanwhile, John Paul II came tearing into Wednesday's game with nine straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 18.8 points) and they left with even more momentum. They blew past Salpointe Catholic 82-58. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Highland Prep has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 6-3 record this season. As for John Paul II, their win bumped their record up to 17-3.
