Natalia is 0-6 against Crystal City since November of 2014 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Natalia Mustangs will be playing at home against the Crystal City Javelinas at 6:30 p.m. Having both just faced considerable losses, both teams are looking to turn things around.
Natalia suffered their biggest defeat since December 29, 2023 on Tuesday. They suffered a rough 68-44 defeat at the hands of Lytle. While losing is never fun, Natalia can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 1249th, while Lytle is ranked 357th).
Despite the defeat, Natalia had strong showings from Yahdi Lujan, who scored 22 points, and Anaya Jones, who scored 19 points along with nine rebounds and four blocks. That was a full 50% of Natalia's points, marking the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Meanwhile, Crystal City was beaten by Lytle 62-35 on Friday.
Natalia has been struggling recently, as they've lost 11 of their last 13 matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 10-19 record this season. As for Crystal City, their loss dropped their record down to 14-14.
Natalia came up short against Crystal City when the teams last played on January 9th, falling 48-35. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Crystal City's Lyndsie Bosquez, who scored 16 points along with nine rebounds and three steals. Now that Natalia knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
