Winning is just a little bit easier when you work as a team to rack up seven more assists than your opponent, a fact the Highland Hawks proved on Thursday. They managed a 58-53 victory over Dobson. Given Highland's advantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 14th, while Dobson is ranked 83rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Highland was led to victory by Nick Reber and Michael Johnson. Reber scored 13 points along with five assists, while Johnson scored 19 points along with five rebounds and three steals. Johnson hasn't dropped below two steals for three straight games. Another player making a difference was Ty Crandall, who scored ten points along with six rebounds.
Despite the loss, Dobson still got an impressive performance from Donovan Beard, who scored 23 points. The game was Beard's 15th in a row with at least ten points. Zayn Young was another key contributor, scoring 11 points.
Highland is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 9-3 record this season. As for Dobson, they now have a losing record at 7-8.
Highland and Liberty will face off at 2:30 p.m. on December 29, 2023 without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Liberty is strutting with some offensive muscle, as they've averaged 67.1 points per game. Dobson will get a bit of extra time to process the loss as their next game is a ways off. They'll take on Red Mountain at 7:00 p.m. on January 11th.
