Natoma hasn't had much luck against Pike Valley recently, but that could start to change on Tuesday. A feisty cat fight is on tap when the Natoma Tigers take on the Pike Valley Panthers at 7:00 p.m.
Natoma is headed into the match out to prove that what happened against Lincoln on Friday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Natoma had to suffer through a 62-26 loss at the hands of Lincoln. The Tigers were in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 39-16.
Despite the loss, Natoma had strong showings from Kelden Rubottom, who posted 11 points and three blocks, and Israel Bos, who put up three points. That was a full 42.3% of Natoma's points, marking the third time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Meanwhile, Pike Valley strolled past Stockton with points to spare on Friday, taking the game 52-36.
Pike Valley found their leader in sophomore Dayton Reeves, who almost dropped a double-double on 12 points and nine steals. Those nine steals gave Reeves a new career-high. Ezra Benne was another key player, going 5 for 8 on his way to 10 points and four steals.
Pike Valley was working as a unit and finished the game with 14 assists. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their assist total in three consecutive contests.
Pike Valley's win ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 6-9. As for Natoma, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 2-11.
Natoma took a serious blow against Pike Valley when the teams last played back in January, falling 56-19. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Pike Valley's Andrew Cooper, who went 11 of 14 en route to 22 points and seven assists. Now that Natoma knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
