The Valley Christian Trojans will head out on the road to challenge the Miami Vandals at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Last Thursday, Valley Christian got the win against Florence by a conclusive 50-27. Given the Trojans' advantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 72nd, while the Gophers are ranked 215th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Miami had already won 21 in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 39.3 points) and they went ahead and made it 22 on Thursday. They breezed past the CHARGERS to the tune of 70-16. The Vandals pushed the score to 70-13 by the end of the third, a deficit the CHARGERS cut but never quite recovered from.
Miami's win came from a few key players Valley Christian will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Tamia Pietila, who went 9 of 15 en route to 22 points along with eight boards and five assists. She has been hot for a while, having also posted two or more steals the last 28 times she's played. Aeriana Brown was another key player, going 9 for 15 on her way to 18 points and six steals.
Miami smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 14 offensive boards in five consecutive games.
Miami's win was their 15th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 26-1. Those victories came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 20.1 points over those games. As for Valley Christian, they are on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 14 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 16-8 record this season.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
