Having just played yesterday, the Lamar Thunder will head out on the road to face off against the Banning Lewis Academy Stallions at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both teams are coming into the game red-hot, with Lamar sitting on ten straight wins and Banning Lewis Academy on six.
Lamar is headed into the match after thoroughly thrashing Woodland Park: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Lamar blew Woodland Park out of the water with a 54-21 final score. The contest was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Thunder had established a 28 point advantage.
Jacob Dunning
| 02/07/25 vs Woodland Park | 2 |
| 02/04/25 vs The Vanguard School | 3 |
| 02/01/25 @ Alamosa | 3 |
| 01/31/25 vs James Irwin | 2 |
Lamar can attribute much of their success to Jacob Dunning, who posted 15 points and six rebounds, and Diego Estrada, who scored 11 points. Dunning is also on a roll when it comes to steals, as he's now grabbed two or more in the last four games he's played. Cason Pollart was another key player, putting up five points.
Lamar smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 18 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least ten offensive rebounds in eight consecutive games.
Meanwhile, you're bound to get a positive result if you outscore your opponent every quarter, and that's exactly how it played out for Banning Lewis Academy on Tuesday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that they blew Salida out of the water with an 85-57 final score. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 44-24.
Lamar better focus on containing Matthew Lebron and Jordan Jones as the pair were huge in Banning Lewis Academy's win. Lebron went 8 for 12 from beyond the arc to rack up 32 points and three steals, while Jones dropped a double-double on 18 points and 11 boards. The team also got some help courtesy of Trey Oden, who went 7 of 15 on his way to 17 points along with seven assists and three steals.
Lamar pushed their record up to 14-2 with the victory, which was their tenth straight at home dating back to last season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 29.8 points. As for Banning Lewis Academy, their record is now 10-3.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Lamar has been crashing the boards this season, having averaged 34.8 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Banning Lewis Academy struggles in that department as they've been averaging 32.7 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Everything went Lamar's way against Banning Lewis Academy in their previous matchup back in January of 2024, as Lamar made off with a 43-23 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Lamar since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
