Basketball Game Preview: Tanque Verde Hawks vs. Empire Ravens

Tanque Verde has gone 9-1 against Empire recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Tuesday. It'll be Battle of the Birds when the Tanque Verde Hawks duke it out with the Empire Ravens at 7:00 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.

If Tanque Verde beats Empire with 75 points on Tuesday, it's going to be the squad's new lucky number: they've won their past two contests with that exact score. Tanque Verde took down The Gregory School 75-59 on Wednesday. The win made it back-to-back victories for Tanque Verde.

Tanque Verde relied on the efforts of Rocco Haggard, who went 9 of 18 on his way to 24 points, and Rich Knott, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and ten assists. The dominant performance gave Knott a new career-high in assists. The team also got some help courtesy of Alejandro Espinoza, who posted eight points and six rebounds.

Meanwhile, Empire was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap on Friday as they fell 61-55 to Desert Christian. The Ravens have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

Tanque Verde has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-7 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 66.3 points per game. As for Empire, their defeat dropped their record down to 9-11.

Tanque Verde beat Empire 69-62 in their previous matchup back in January of 2024. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Empire's Deshawn Washington, who put up 27 points and eight rebounds. Now that he won't be playing on Tuesday, will it be easier for Tanque Verde to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.