This season hasn't been kind to the Shadow Mountain Matadors, who are still winless after their sixth game. They were the victim of a rough 70-47 loss at the hands of Combs on Monday. While losing is never fun, Shadow Mountain can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 280th, while Combs is ranked 88th).
Shadow Mountain lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Pierce Rogers, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 13 rebounds. Rogers set a new season high mark in steals with three. The team also got some help courtesy of Cory Lamb-Jones, who scored 19 points along with five rebounds and three steals.
Even though they lost, Shadow Mountain were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with 20 offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Combs to victory, but perhaps none more so than Johnathon Byaus, who dropped a double-double on 16 points and 12 rebounds. Byaus hasn't dropped below eight rebounds for six straight games. Logan Tuckfield was another key contributor, scoring 18 points.
Shadow Mountain bumped their record down to 0-6 with that loss, which was their seventh straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Combs, the victory was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 8-2.
Shadow Mountain will be playing in front of their home fans against Arizona College Prep at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Hopefully Arizona College Prep focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 15 on Tuesday. Combs won't have much time to rest: their next contest is against Marcos de Niza at 7:00 p.m. on December 12th. Hopefully Marcos de Niza focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 14 on Monday.
