The Villa Park Spartans are taking a road trip to square off against the Cypress Centurions at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Villa Park will be strutting in after a victory while Cypress will be coming in after a loss.
Cypress will be up against a hot Villa Park team: the squad just extended their winning streak to three. Villa Park claimed a resounding 65-15 win over La Habra. The Spartans have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won seven matchups by 21 points or more this season.
Villa Park's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Olivia Sturdivant, who went 7 of 10 on her way to 15 points, and Madelyn Martinez, who made all 5 shots she took to post 12 points. Sabina Patel was another key player, putting up four points in addition to seven assists and four steals.
Villa Park was working as a unit and finished the game with 23 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in January of 2024.
Meanwhile, Cypress came up short against Sonora on Tuesday and fell 48-37. While losing is never fun, the Centurions can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 374th, while the Raiders are ranked 170th).
Despite the defeat, Cypress saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Sophia Cunha dropped a double-double on ten points and 13 rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Kailey Tilson, who posted seven points.
Villa Park has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine contests, which provided a nice bump to their 18-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 29.8 points per game. As for Cypress, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 10-9.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Villa Park has been crashing the boards this season, having averaged 27.8 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Cypress struggles in that department as they've been averaging 33.7 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Villa Park took a serious blow against Cypress in their previous meeting back in December of 2014, falling 56-13. That game was all but decided by halftime, at which point Villa Park was down 33-1.
