Sangre de Cristo and the Panthers are an even 5-5 against one another since February of 2017, but not for long. The Sangre de Cristo Thunderbirds will head out on the road to face off against the Sierra Grande Panthers at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Sangre de Cristo scored the most points they've had all season to find success on Monday. They really took it to La Veta for the full four quarters, racking up a 62-28 win at home. Sangre de Cristo pushed the score to 52-23 by the end of the third, a deficit the Redhawks had little chance of recovering from.
Kaiden Smit was his usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 25 points and 21 rebounds. He has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last five times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Deagon Rogers, who scored 21 points.
Meanwhile, Sierra Grande had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 46.5 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They breezed by Moffat on the road to the tune of 71-43. Winning is a bit easier when you work as a team to rack up 12 more assists than your opponent, as Sierra Grande did.
Sierra Grande found their leader in underclassman Jadyn Martinez, who scored 20 points along with seven rebounds and five steals. Martinez hasn't dropped below 15 points for four straight games. Another player making a difference was Aron Ojeda, who scored 19 points along with seven rebounds and two steals.
Sangre de Cristo's victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 9-5. As for Sierra Grande, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine contests, which provided a nice bump to their 11-3 record this season.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Sangre de Cristo have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 25.1 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Sierra Grande struggles in that department as they've been averaging 29.9 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Sangre de Cristo took a serious blow against the Panthers when the teams last played back in February of 2023, falling 66-34. The contest was all but decided by halftime, at which point Sangre de Cristo was down 42-21.
