The Live Oak Acorns will wrap up 2023 with a road trip to face off against the Harbor Pirates at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Hopefully Live Oak focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 22 on Friday.
Last Friday, it was close, but Live Oak ultimately received the gift of a 54-52 victory from a begrudging Acornssquad. The win was all the more spectacular given their disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 493rd, while Santa Clara is ranked 226th).
Maya Rafat and Kathliyah Clement were among the main playmakers for Live Oak as the former dropped a double-double on 19 points and ten rebounds and the latter dropped a double-double on 21 points and ten rebounds. The match was Clement's third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Amaya Valencia, who scored two points.
Meanwhile, Harbor was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap on Thursday as they fell 28-23 to Castilleja. Harbor has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Despite the defeat, Harbor saw an underclassman step up: Malalai Martin Etemadi scored 15 points. Martin Etemadi scored a full 65.2% of Harbor's points, the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Live Oak's victory was their 13th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 8-2. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 55.5 points per game. As for Harbor, their loss dropped their record down to 6-4.
Live Oak took their victory against Harbor when the teams last played back in December of 2017 by a conclusive 42-20. Does Live Oak have another victory up their sleeve, or will Harbor turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
