The Red Bluff Spartans struggled with three-point shooting accuracy on Friday (the McKinleyville Panthers were 27% better) and sadly the final score reflected it. Red Bluff took a hard 67-51 fall against McKinleyville. While losing is never fun, Red Bluff can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 668th, while McKinleyville is ranked 225th).
Despite the defeat, Red Bluff had strong showings from Eli Hohenberger, who dropped a double-double on 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Ryan Ross, who scored 7 points along with 8 rebounds. Hohenberger scored a full 45.1% of Red Bluff's points, the second time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points.
McKinleyville's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Bode Douglass led the charge by scoring 23 points. Flynn Creighton was another key contributor, scoring 12 points along with 3 steals.
This is the second loss in a row for Red Bluff and nudges their season record down to 2-5. As for McKinleyville, they are on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 6-3 record this season.
Red Bluff will head out on the road to face off against Orland at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. McKinleyville is on the road again on Saturday and play against Fortuna at 11:30 a.m. on December 9th.
