The Escondido Cougars will head out on the road to square off against the Mt. Carmel Sundevils at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Escondido is hoping to put an end to a five-game streak of away losses.
Escondido suffered their biggest defeat since December 16, 2023 on Wednesday. They had to suffer through a rough 72-33 loss at the hands of Westview.
Meanwhile, Mt. Carmel came tearing into Wednesday's matchup with five straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 18.8 points) and they left with even more momentum. They skirted past Fallbrook 53-51. Given Mt. Carmel's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 357th, while Fallbrook is ranked 808th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Mt. Carmel's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Raymond Hourani led the charge by dropping a double-double on 12 points and 13 rebounds. Hourani is on a roll when it comes to blocks, as he's now posted two or more in the last six games he's played. Makai Orje was another key contributor, scoring 14 points.
Escondido has not been sharp recently, as they've lost four of their last five games, which put a noticeable dent in their 8-13 record this season. As for Mt. Carmel, they have been performing well recently as they've won eight of their last ten matches, which provided a massive bump to their 12-9 record this season.
Escondido might still be hurting after the 67-46 defeat they got from Mt. Carmel in their previous matchup on January 10th. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Mt. Carmel's Jimmy Milder, who scored 15 points along with four steals. Now that Escondido knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
