If Colony wanted to avenge their loss from the last time they played Yucaipa, they should've done a better job of containing Malik Young. The Yucaipa Thunderbirds skirted past the Colony Titans 84-81 thanks in part to Young, who went 13 for 21 en route to 33 points plus five assists and three steals. That makes it four consecutive games in which he has scored at least a third of Yucaipa's points.
Another player making a difference was Jaxon Lerma, who almost dropped a double-double on nine points and 13 assists. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in assists.
Yucaipa was working as a unit and finished the game with 28 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Despite the defeat, Colony saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Carter Johnson shot 4-for-5 from long range and dropped a double-double on 24 points and 11 rebounds. Johnson has become a key player for Colony: the team is 2-1 when he posts at least eight rebounds, but 0-4 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of Elijah Arredondo, who went 6 for 11 en route to 14 points.
Yucaipa is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 5-2 record this season. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 68.0 points per game. As for Colony, their loss dropped their record down to 2-5.
Yucaipa will challenge Palm Springs at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Palm Springs will roll in looking for their fourth straight victory, something Yucaipa surely won't give up without a fight. As for Colony, they will face off against Murrieta Mesa at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Colony is facing Murrieta Mesa at the right time seeing as Murrieta Mesa is stuck on a three-game losing streak.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
