Central is on a three-game streak of home losses, Tulare Western a three-game streak of away losses, but someone's luck will change on Saturday. The Central Grizzlies will welcome the Tulare Western Mustangs at 6:00 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Central is headed into the matchup having just posted their closest win since December 28, 2023 on Tuesday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Clovis, sneaking past 64-62. Given the Grizzlies' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 165th, while the Cougars are ranked 444th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Tulare Western came up short against Tulare Union on Tuesday and fell 83-73. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Thursday (59), the Mustangs still had to take the loss.
Central will have to contain Malachi Ficher as he made an impact in Tulare Western's last game. He went 12-for-22 en route to 34 points and six boards. Tulare Western is 17-6 when Ficher posts 20 or more points, but 1-4 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of Kaine Garcia, who posted 12 points.
Even though they lost, Tulare Western smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 14 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in eight consecutive games.
Central's victory ended a six-game drought on the road and puts them at 17-12. As for Tulare Western, their loss dropped their record down to 18-10.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
