It'll be Battle of the Birds when the Arroyo Valley Hawks challenge the Yucaipa Thunderbirds at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday...
Last Wednesday, Arroyo Valley had to suffer through a 63-35 loss at the hands of Serrano. The Hawks have struggled against the Diamondbacks recently, as the game was their third consecutive lost matchup.
Meanwhile, Yucaipa entered their tilt with Victor Valley on Friday with three consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with four. They blew past the Jackrabbits 72-52. The matchup marked the Thunderbirds' most dominant win of the season so far.
Arroyo Valley better keep an eye on Jaxon Lerma. He was instrumental in Yucaipa's win, dropping a double-double on 22 points and 12 boards. With that strong performance, Lerma is now averaging an impressive 8.2 rebounds per game. Another player making a difference was Malik Young, who went 6 of 9 on his way to 19 points and eight assists.
Yucaipa is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 9-3 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 67.1 points per game. As for Arroyo Valley, their loss dropped their record down to 3-9.
Arroyo Valley was taken down by Yucaipa 66-14 in their previous meeting back in November of 2021. Thankfully for Arroyo Valley, Nathen Hernandez (who dropped a double-double on 20 points and ten boards) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
