The Paradise Honors Panthers will head out on the road to face off against the Liberty Lions at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Paradise Honors has three straight wins, Liberty has four straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Last Wednesday, Paradise Honors strolled past McClintock with points to spare, taking the game 51-34. Given Paradise Honors' advantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 27th, while McClintock is ranked 98th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Paradise Honors' success was spearheaded by the efforts of Star Nwabichie, who scored 16 points, and Morgan Van Dyke, who scored 17 points. That makes it two consecutive games in which Van Dyke has scored at least 25% of Paradise Honors' points. The team also got some help courtesy of Jaelyn Perez, who scored 6 points.
Meanwhile, Liberty came up short against Shadow Ridge on Friday and fell 41-34. The defeat unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Liberty in their matchups with Shadow Ridge: they've now lost four in a row.
Their wins bumped Paradise Honors to 6-2 and McClintock to 2-1.
Paradise Honors strolled past Liberty in their previous meeting back in December of 2022 by a score of 54-40. Will Paradise Honors repeat their success, or does Liberty have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
