After three games on the road, Ponderosa is heading back home. They will take on the Pueblo East Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Ponderosa knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with flashy point totals in its past three matches -- so hopefully Pueblo East likes a good challenge.
Even though Bear Creek scored an imposing 60 points on Saturday, Ponderosa still came out on top. Ponderosa took their matchup against Bear Creek 69-60. Given Ponderosa's advantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked 30th, while Bear Creek is ranked 100th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Ponderosa's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Noah Wilhelm led the charge by scoring 25 points along with 7 rebounds and 3 steals. That makes it three consecutive games in which Wilhelm has scored at least 25% of Ponderosa's points. Another player making a difference was Carson Keach, who scored 19 points along with 7 assists.
Meanwhile, it's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 73-27, which was the final score in Pueblo East's tilt against Mesa Ridge on Tuesday. Pueblo East has not had much luck with Mesa Ridge recently, as the team's come up short the last three times they've met.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the most dominant came from Jaden Garcia, who scored 8 points. He scored a full 29.6% of Pueblo East's points, the second time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Ponderosa now has a winning record of 2-1. As for Pueblo East, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-3.
Ponderosa came up short against Pueblo East in their previous matchup back in December of 2019, falling 84-80. Can Ponderosa avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
