The Norco Cougars are on the road again on Tuesday and play against the Redlands East Valley Wildcats at 6:30 p.m. on December 26th. Norco knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with flashy point totals in its past 16 matchups -- so hopefully Redlands East Valley likes a good challenge.
Norco has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won five contests by 20 points or more this season. Everything went their way against Granite Hills on Friday as Norco made off with a 81-61 win. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
It was another big night for Matthew Mendias, who scored 28 points. The contest was his 11th in a row with at least ten points. Kameron Brown was another key contributor, scoring 15 points.
Meanwhile, Redlands East Valley pushed their score all the way to 60 last Friday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a 65-60 hit to the loss column at the hands of Glendora. While losing is never fun, Redlands East Valley can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 361st, while Glendora is ranked 146th).
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Jeremiah Ivens, who scored 15 points along with six rebounds and five assists. Ivens is absolutely dominating the steal category: he's posted at least two every time he's taken the court this season. Another player making a difference was Dariel Bahamontes, who scored 11 points along with seven rebounds and three blocks.
Norco's victory ended a five-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 9-7. As for Redlands East Valley, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 7-5.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the pair are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Norco hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having only averaged 75.4 points per game. It's a different story for Redlands East Valley, though, as they've been averaging only 64.1 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Norco came out on top in a nail-biter against Redlands East Valley when the teams last played back in November of 2022, sneaking past 52-49. Will Norco repeat their success, or does Redlands East Valley have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
