The Glendale Cardinals will take on the La Joya Community Fighting Lobos at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Glendale has struggled recently with three losses in a row, while La Joya Community will arrive with three straight victories.
Glendale is headed into the contest out to prove that what happened against Cortez back in December of 2024 (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Glendale was dealt a 70-31 defeat at the hands of Cortez. The game marked the Cardinals' lowest-scoring match so far this season.
Glendale's loss came about despite a quality game from Michael Palomino, who went 6 of 12 en route to 13 points along with six boards and five steals.
Meanwhile, La Joya Community was fully in charge on Wednesday, breezing past Alhambra 71-28. Given the Fighting Lobos' advantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 147th, while the Lions are ranked 307th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Glendale better focus on containing Isaiah Carter and Jaseer Willis as the pair were huge in La Joya Community's win. Carter almost dropped a double-double on 22 points and nine rebounds, while Willis went 6 of 12 on his way to 14 points along with six rebounds and six steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Angel Ruiz, who posted eight points and five rebounds.
La Joya Community smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 17 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in nine consecutive contests.
La Joya Community is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 10-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.3 points per game. As for Glendale, their defeat dropped their record down to 2-4.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Glendale has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 27.3 boards per game. However, it's not like La Joya Community struggles in that department as they've been averaging 33.3 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more basketball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
