Alief Taylor is on a five-game streak of home losses, Alief Hastings a 17-game streak of away losses dating back to last season, but someone's luck will change on Friday. The Alief Taylor Lions will welcome the Alief Hastings Bears at 1:00 p.m. Alief Taylor will be strutting in after a victory while Alief Hastings will be coming in after a defeat.
Last Sunday, in a tight contest that could have gone either way, Alief Taylor made off with a 45-44 win over Trinity.
| 12/29/24 vs Trinity | 18 |
| 02/14/24 @ Alief Elsik | 13 |
| 12/07/24 vs Tomball | 13 |
| 12/27/24 vs Texas City | 13 |
| 01/24/24 vs Alvin | 13 |
Alief Taylor can attribute much of their success to Tae Malik, who went 7 of 12 on his way to 18 points. Those 18 points gave Malik a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Sean Kongolo, who posted eight points and five assists.
Meanwhile, Alief Hastings came up short against Fulshear last Friday and fell 50-40. While losing is never fun, the Bears can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 1055th, while the Chargers are ranked 488th).
Alief Taylor will have to keep a close watch on Giovanni Bernal and Marcos Arencibia, a pair of players who had a big impact on Alief Hastings' prior game. Bernal went 5 of 11 on his way to 14 points, while Arencibia had ten points.
Alief Taylor has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 7-13 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 60.4 points per game. As for Alief Hastings, their loss dropped their record down to 3-11.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Alief Taylor has been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 25.5 boards per game. However, it's not like Alief Hastings struggles in that department as they've been averaging 27.6 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Alief Taylor strolled past Alief Hastings in their previous meeting back in January by a score of 61-47. Will Alief Taylor repeat their success, or does Alief Hastings have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
