Basketball Game Preview: Tonopah Muckers vs. Pahranagat Valley Panthers

Tonopah hasn't had much luck against Pahranagat Valley recently, but that could start to change on Saturday. After both having extra time off, the two teams will dust off their jerseys to face off against one another at 5:30 p.m. Both are strolling into their contests after big wins in their previous games.

Tonopah is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They simply couldn't be stopped two weeks ago as they easily beat Beatty 55-16. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest win of the season.

Tonopah found their leader in sophomore Landen Blackburn, who almost dropped a double-double on 18 points and nine boards. The match was Blackburn's sixth in a row with at least ten points. Adelaido Salgado was another key player, putting up eight points and five rebounds.

Tonopah was working as a unit and finished the game with 12 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.

Meanwhile, everything went Pahranagat Valley's way against Lund last Saturday as Pahranagat Valley made off with a 35-15 victory. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Panthers.

Pahranagat Valley is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 5-7 record this season. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 29.5 points per game. As for Tonopah, the win got them back to even at 5-5.

Tonopah was dealt a bruising 53-23 defeat at the hands of Pahranagat Valley when the teams last played back in December of 2023. Can Tonopah avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.