The Evergreen Valley Cougars will head out on the road to take on the Pioneer Mustangs at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Evergreen Valley comes in on eight and Pioneer on four.
Even though Branham scored an imposing 57 points on Tuesday, Evergreen Valley still came out on top. Evergreen Valley had just enough and edged Branham out 60-57. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest win Evergreen Valley has posted yet this season.
Evergreen Valley's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Lealah Rowden led the charge by dropping a double-double on 18 points and 11 rebounds. Rowden has been hot recently, having posted eight or more rebounds the last six times she's played. Ryka Aprameyan was another key contributor, scoring 24 points along with six rebounds and two steals.
Meanwhile, you can't lose the game if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Pioneer's strategy against Leland on Tuesday. Pioneer came out on top against Leland by a score of 41-34. Given Pioneer's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 118th, while Leland is ranked 252nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Evergreen Valley pushed their record up to 14-5 with that win, which was their fourth straight at home. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 63.8 points per game. As for Pioneer, their victory bumped their record up to 12-4.
Everything went Evergreen Valley's way against Pioneer when the teams last played on January 9th as Evergreen Valley made off with a 64-40 win. With Evergreen Valley ahead 38-12 at the half, the matchup was all but over already.
