The Simi Valley Pioneers can finally bid farewell to their three-game losing streak thanks to their game on Monday. They walked away with a 78-69 win over Chatsworth. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
Leading Simi Valley to victory were Justin Rener and Ryder Mjoen. Rener went 7 for 13 from beyond the arc en route to 27 points and 0 assists, while Mjoen scored 40 points. That makes it ten consecutive games in which Mjoen has scored at least 25% of Simi Valley's points. Kyle Hoffer was another key contributor, scoring eight points along with five assists.
When it comes to explaining why Chatsworth lost, one person who can't be blamed is Alijah Arenas. Despite the final result, he scored 33 points along with five rebounds. The matchup was Arenas' ninth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Tekeio Phillips, who scored 16 points along with six rebounds.
Even though they lost, Chatsworth were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with 19 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Simi Valley only pulled down two offensive rebounds.
The victory got Simi Valley back to even at 6-6. As for Chatsworth, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 3-6.
Simi Valley's road trip will continue as they head out to face Poly at 3:00 p.m. on December 19th. Poly will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps California Rankings (they are ranked 727th, while Simi Valley is ranked 186th). Chatsworth won't have much time to rest: their next matchup is against Saugus at 7:30 p.m. on December 19th. One thing working in Saugus' favor is that they have posted big point totals every time they've taken the court this season.