The Agua Fria Owls will venture away from home to challenge the Glendale Cardinals at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Agua Fria is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 51.6 points per game this season.
Agua Fria will head into Friday's match out to bounce back: they won a close one the last time they played, but unfortunately they suffered a serious change of fortune on Friday. They had to suffer through a 66-39 loss at the hands of Westview. While losing is never fun, the Owls can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 235th, while the Knights are ranked 115th).
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the best came from Jason Mitchell, who posted four points.
Meanwhile, Glendale was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their fifth straight loss. They took a 59-45 bruising from Sierra Linda. While the Cardinals didn't get the win, they did start the game off strong, beating the Bulldogs 15-11 in the first quarter.
Agua Fria will have to keep a close watch on Victor Rodriguez and Anthony Duran, a pair of players who had a big impact on Glendale's prior game. Rodriguez went 5 for 10 on his way to 12 points and six steals, while Duran had nine points along with eight assists and six rebounds. Rodriguez continues to improve, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he's played. Another player making a difference was Simon Sinohui, who earned eight points in addition to nine boards and three steals.
Even though they lost, Glendale smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 16 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least nine offensive rebounds in eight consecutive contests.
Glendale's record now sits at 4-10. As for Agua Fria, they have been struggling recently as they've lost seven of their last eight games, which put a noticeable dent in their 11-14 record this season.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Agua Fria has been crashing the rebounds this season, having averaged 29.8 boards per game. However, it's not like Glendale struggles in that department as they've been averaging 31.9 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other basketball content.
