Mesa Ridge is on a 13-game streak of home wins (dating back to last season), while Palmer is on a three-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Mesa Ridge Grizzlies will host the Palmer Terrors at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Mesa Ridge is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 57.3 points per game this season.
Last Friday, Mesa Ridge strolled past Harrison with points to spare, taking the game 54-36. Given the Grizzlies' advantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked 22nd, while the Panthers are ranked 200th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Mesa Ridge's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Jaxon Auger led the charge by putting up eight points. The team also got some help courtesy of Brian Lamar, who posted ten points and five boards.
Meanwhile, a well-balanced attack led Palmer over Widefield in every quarter on their way to victory on Friday. Everything went Palmer's way against Widefield as Palmer made off with a 58-34 win.
Palmer's win came from a few key players Mesa Ridge will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Zaveaun Hunter, who went 7 for 10 on his way to 14 points and eight rebounds. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in boards. Another player making a difference was Ayden Yunker, who went 5 of 9 en route to 14 points.
Palmer smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 18 offensive rebounds. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 4 offensive boards per game earlier this season, but in their last 15 contests they've averaged 9.8.
Palmer has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six games, which provided a massive bump to their 11-7 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.2 points per game. As for Mesa Ridge, their victory bumped their record up to 14-1.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as Mesa Ridge and Palmer are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Mesa Ridge hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 57.3 points per game. However, it's not like Palmer struggles in that department as they've been averaging 57.3 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Mesa Ridge barely slipped by Palmer in their previous matchup back in January, winning 49-48. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Palmer's J'Twane Mike, who went 10 for 21 on his way to 24 points. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Mesa Ridge still be able to contain Mike? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
