Piner is 8-2 against Santa Rosa since January of 2019 and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Piner Prospectors will host the Santa Rosa Panthers at 6:00 p.m. Piner is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 59 points per game this season.
Piner is headed into the game having just suffered their biggest defeat since January 11th on Saturday. They were outmatched by Maria Carrillo and fell 75-47. While losing is never fun, the Prospectors can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 355th, while the Pumas are ranked 170th).
| 12/28/24 vs Maria Carrillo | 18 |
| 12/27/24 vs Christopher | 23 |
| 12/26/24 vs Terra Linda | 27 |
| 12/23/24 vs San Rafael | 22 |
| 12/20/24 vs Analy | 22 |
Despite the loss, Piner got top-tier performance from Apollo Pereira, who posted 18 points. The contest was Pereira's 13th in a row with at least ten points. Brendan Walker was another key player, putting up eight points and eight rebounds.
Meanwhile, Santa Rosa didn't have too much breathing room in their match against College Park on Saturday, but they still walked away with a 68-64 win. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Panthers.
Santa Rosa's win came from a few key players Piner will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Weston Mohr, who had 23 points and five rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Arlo Mischke, who put up 19 points and eight rebounds.
Santa Rosa is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 9-4 record this season. As for Piner, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 8-6.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as both are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Piner hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 59 points per game. However, it's not like Santa Rosa struggles in that department as they've been averaging 56.2 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Everything came up roses for Piner against Santa Rosa when the teams last played back in January, as the squad secured a 66-39 victory. Will Piner repeat their success, or does Santa Rosa have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
