The La Joya Community Fighting Lobos just played yesterday, but they'll still head out to face the Glendale Cardinals at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (La Joya Community has three straight victories, Glendale has three straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the court.
La Joya Community will head into Wednesday's matchup hoping to keep the good times rolling: they had to skate by with only a two-point margin when they last took the court, which might have inspired the 43-point drubbing they dealt Alhambra on Wednesday. La Joya Community blew past Alhambra 71-28. Given the Fighting Lobos' advantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 147th, while the Lions are ranked 307th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Isaiah Carter and Jaseer Willis were among the main playmakers for La Joya Community as the former almost dropped a double-double on 22 points and nine boards and the latter went 6 of 12 on his way to 14 points in addition to six boards and six steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Angel Ruiz, who posted eight points and five rebounds.
La Joya Community smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 17 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive boards in nine consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Glendale played a tough contest back in December of 2024 in which they were outscored in every quarter. They were dealt a 70-31 loss at the hands of Cortez. The matchup marked the Cardinals' lowest-scoring game so far this season.
La Joya Community will have to contain Michael Palomino as he made an impact in Glendale's last game. He went 6 of 12 on his way to 13 points along with six boards and five steals.
La Joya Community has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 10-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.3 points per game. As for Glendale, their defeat dropped their record down to 2-4.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: La Joya Community has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 33.3 boards per game. However, it's not like Glendale struggles in that department as they've been averaging 27.3 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other basketball content.
