The Dana Hills Dolphins just played last night, but they'll still head out to face the Costa Mesa Mustangs at 1:00 p.m. on December 29th. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Dana Hills has five straight wins, Costa Mesa has seven straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Dana Hills has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won eight matches by 21 points or more this season. They simply couldn't be stopped on Thursday as they easily beat Norco 69-10 on the road. Given Dana Hills' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 96th, while Norco is ranked 920th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Dana Hills to victory, but perhaps none more so than Kayla Rice, who scored 12 points along with four steals. The contest was Rice's fifth in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Brooklyn Akason, who scored 18 points.
Meanwhile, Costa Mesa was beaten by Tustin 52-22 on Thursday. The loss unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Costa Mesa in their matchups with Tustin: they've now lost three in a row.
Costa Mesa's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Emi Kamikihara, who scored 11 points, and Mya Martinez who scored seven points. Martinez scored a full 31.8% of Costa Mesa's points, the fourth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Dana Hills has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten matches, which provided a nice bump to their 12-2 record this season. As for Costa Mesa, they bumped their record down to 3-10 with that defeat, which was their fifth straight at home.
Friday's game is shaping up to be a blowout: Dana Hills hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having only averaged 57 points per game. It's a different story for Costa Mesa, though, as they've been averaging only 29.5 points per game. The only thing between Dana Hills and another offensive beatdown is Costa Mesa. Will they be able to keep them contained? Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other basketball content.