Animo De La Hoya has been on the road for eight straight, but on Monday they'll finally head home. They will take on the Stern Titans at 3:30 p.m. on Monday. Animo De La Hoya will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps California Rankings (they are ranked 1213th, while Stern is ranked 400th).
Last Thursday, Animo De La Hoya suffered a tough 33-13 defeat at the hands of Torres.
Meanwhile, Stern beat Smidt Tech 53-42 on Friday. The win made it back-to-back wins for Stern.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Stern to victory, but perhaps none more so than Mark Bautista, who scored 18 points. The game was Bautista's seventh in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Vince Villanueva, who scored 16 points along with 8 rebounds.
The last time Animo De La Hoya won on the road was back back in November. Having now lost five straight away games, they've bumped their record down to 1-8. That rough patch could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 26.2 points per game. As for Stern, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 7-2 record this season.
Animo De La Hoya strolled past Stern in their previous matchup back in January by a score of 59-42. Does Animo De La Hoya have another victory up their sleeve, or will Stern turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
