The Casa Roble Rams entered their tilt with the Rio Linda Knights with two consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with three. Casa Roble greeted the New Year with with a 77-59 win over Rio Linda. Given Casa Roble's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 394th, while Rio Linda is ranked 1025th), the result on Tuesday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Casa Roble was led to victory by Travis Remly and Benny Ambriz. Remly dropped a double-double on 13 points and 19 rebounds, while Ambriz scored 21 points along with five rebounds. That makes it nine consecutive games in which Ambriz has scored at least 25% of Casa Roble's points. Ace Villegas was another key contributor, scoring ten points along with six assists and six rebounds.
Several Knights players turned in solid performances, despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Marques Martin , who scored 14 points along with nine rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Jarai Gray, who dropped a double-double on 12 points and ten rebounds.
Casa Roble has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-5 record this season. As for Rio Linda, they are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 4-12.
Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Casa Roble will take on Pioneer at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Pioneer is strutting with some offensive muscle, as they've averaged 52.9 points per game. Rio Linda will be staying on the road on Friday to face off against West Campus at 7:00 p.m. on January 5th. West Campus knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with flashy point totals in its past nine matchups -- so hopefully Rio Linda likes a good challenge.
