The Pioneer Valley Panthers were the 73-61 winner over the Santa Maria Saints when they last played one another back in January, but their luck changed this time around. Pioneer Valley took a 70-62 hit to the loss column at the hands of Santa Maria on Friday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Tuesday (57), Pioneer Valley still had to take the loss.
Pioneer Valley lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Elias Giddings, who scored 21 points along with six rebounds and two steals. Giddings continues to roll, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he's played. Another player making a difference was Inderveer Toor, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and 15 rebounds.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Santa Maria to victory, but perhaps none more so than Anthony Morales, who scored 19 points along with eight assists and four steals. Morales has been hot recently, having posted eight or more assists the last three times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Johnathan Lupercio, who scored 21 points.
Pioneer Valley has not been sharp recently as the team has lost three of their last four matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 11-16 record this season. As for Santa Maria, the victory was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 16-12.
Pioneer Valley will head out on the road to take on Santa Ynez at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Santa Ynez is strutting with some offensive muscle, as they've averaged 53.4 points per game this season. As for Santa Maria, they will head out on the road to face off against Sanger West at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Santa Maria knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with flashy point totals in its past 18 contests -- so hopefully Sanger West likes a good challenge.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
