The Sunny Hills Lancers pushed their score all the way to 62 on Wednesday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They fell 71-62 to Centennial. While losing is never fun, Sunny Hills can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps's basketball rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 175th in California, while Centennial is ranked 13th in Nevada).
Loss or not, Sunny Hills got some senior leadership from Justin Shim who went 6 for 9 from beyond the arc en route to 21 points and 3 assists and Kingsley Ashley who dropped a double-double on 15 points and 11 rebounds. That's the first time this season that Shim scored 15 or more points. The team also got some help courtesy of Ze Brien Watkins, who scored ten points along with five rebounds and three blocks.
Centennial was led to victory by Bryce Iwuoha and RJ Nance. Iwuoha dropped a double-double on 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Nance scored 21 points along with four steals. The match was Iwuoha's third in a row with at least ten points. Jaylen Kelly was another key contributor, scoring seven points.
Sunny Hills has not been sharp recently, as they've lost three of their last four matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 11-5 record this season. As for Centennial, they now have a winning record of 7-6.
Sunny Hills and Rancho will face off at 5:30 p.m. on December 28th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Rancho knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with flashy point totals in its past four games -- so hopefully Sunny Hills likes a good challenge. Centennial and Cypress will face off at 2:30 p.m. on December 28th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Cypress is looking to tack on another W to their three-game streak on the road.
