The Tahoma Bears pushed their score all the way to 80 on Saturday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They were just a bucket shy of victory and fell 81-80 to San Tan Charter. Despite running the score up even higher than they did on Friday (71), Tahoma still had to take the loss.
When it comes to explaining why Tahoma lost, one person who can't be blamed is Dalton Brown. Despite the final result, he scored 33 points. The game was Brown's 11th in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Carter Stonerock, who scored 13 points.
San Tan Charter's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jase Benjamin, who scored nine points along with six assists and six steals. Those six steals set a new season-high mark for him. William Gordon was another key contributor, scoring 16 points.
Tahoma's loss dropped their record down to 7-4. As for San Tan Charter, they are on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven matches, which provided a nice bump to their 13-3 record this season.
Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Tahoma is on the road again on Friday and play against Decatur at 7:00 p.m. on January 5th. Decatur will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Washington Rankings (they are ranked 249th, while Tahoma is ranked 21st). As for San Tan Charter, they will head out on the road to face off against Arete Prep at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Arete Prep will be looking to keep their three-game home win streak alive.
