Basketball Game Preview: Desert Scorpions vs. California City Ravens

Desert has gone 9-1 against California City recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Tuesday. The Desert Scorpions will venture away from home to face off against the California City Ravens at 5:30 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Desert has four straight wins, California City has three straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

Last Friday, Desert got the win against Boron by a conclusive 58-35. The Scorpions have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won ten contests by 21 points or more this season.

Kalista Williams and Destiny Hart were among the main playmakers for Desert as the former dropped a double-double on 21 points and ten steals and the latter dropped a double-double on 25 points and ten rebounds. Hart is crushing it when it comes to boards: she's pulled down at least eight every time she's taken the court this season. Keira Gamboa was another key player, putting up ten points and three steals.

Meanwhile, it's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 56-18, which was the final score in California City's tilt against Rosamond on Friday. While losing is never fun, the Ravens can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 1142nd, while the Roadrunners are ranked 490th).

California City's loss dropped their record down to 4-12. As for Desert, they have been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 14-6 record this season.

Desert didn't have too much breathing room in their game against California City when the teams last played back in December of 2024, but they still walked away with a 38-34 victory. Will Desert repeat their success, or does California City have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.