Two dominant guards in Alissa Belen and Rylee Bradley are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Pioneer Titans will take on the Marina Vikings at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. One thing working in Pioneer's favor is that they have posted at least 55 points in their last five matchups.
Pioneer is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Thursday. They walked away with a 56-49 victory over Oaks Christian. Given the Titans' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 177th, while the Lions are ranked 373rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Riley Almendarez
| 02/13/25 @ Oaks Christian | 75% |
| 02/04/25 @ Artesia | 63% |
| 02/01/25 @ Temescal Canyon | 20% |
| 01/31/25 vs Whitney | 50% |
| 01/28/25 vs Oxford Academy | 40% |
| + 12 more games |
Pioneer found their leader in sophomore Riley Almendarez, who went 9-for-12 en route to 18 points. What's more, Almendarez also posted a 75% field goal percentage, which is the highest she's achieved since back in January. Another player making a difference was Belen, who posted nine points.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Marina). They enjoyed a cozy 70-51 win over Valencia on Thursday. The Vikings pushed the score to 58-35 by the end of the third, a deficit the Tigers cut but never quite recovered from.
Marina is on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 18-11 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 56.2 points over those games. As for Pioneer, they pushed their record up to 16-11 with the victory, which was their fifth straight on the road.
Pioneer came out on top in a nail-biter against Marina when the teams last played back in February of 2019, sneaking past 38-36. Does Pioneer have another victory up their sleeve, or will Marina turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
