Arvada West is 1-9 against the Mustangs since February of 2017 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Monday. The Arvada West Wildcats' homestand continues as they prepare to take on the Ralston Valley Mustangs at 7:30 p.m. on February 5th. Hopefully Arvada West focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 20 on Wednesday.
Last Wednesday, Arvada West came up short against the Eagles and fell 61-49. While losing is never fun, Arvada West can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked 59th, while the Eagles are ranked fourth).
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the best came from Saylor Swanson, who scored ten points along with six assists and five rebounds. Malorie Byrne was another key contributor, scoring 14 points along with two blocks.
Meanwhile, even though Columbine scored an imposing 59 points on Wednesday, Ralston Valley still came out on top. Ralston Valley snuck past the Rebels with a 64-59 win. The win was just what Ralston Valley needed coming off of a 54-28 loss in their prior game.
Ralston Valley's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Santana Sabus, who scored 20 points along with two steals, and Sammi Madden, who scored 14 points along with six rebounds and four steals. Sabus has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last three times she's played. Another player making a difference was Karsyn Kline, who scored eight points.
Arvada West's defeat dropped their record down to 11-7. As for Ralston Valley, they are on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 11-6 record this season.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Arvada West have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 31.7 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Ralston Valley struggles in that department as they've been averaging 29.2 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Arvada West came up short against the Mustangs in their previous matchup back in January, falling 48-44. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Sabus, who scored 33 points along with six rebounds and three steals. Now that Arvada West knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
