Basketball Game Preview: Ironwood Ridge Nighthawks vs. Sunnyside Blue Devils

Two dominant guards in Carter Brown and Manuel Moreno are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Ironwood Ridge Nighthawks will head out on the road to square off against the Sunnyside Blue Devils at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Ironwood Ridge is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 56.5 points per game this season.

Ironwood Ridge will head into Saturday's game out to bounce back: they won a close one the last time they played, but unfortunately they suffered a serious change of fortune two weeks ago. They were outmatched by Sahuaro and fell 67-39. While losing is never fun, the Nighthawks can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 131st, while the Cougars are ranked tenth).

The losing side was boosted by Brown, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and ten boards. That's the most rebounds he has posted since back in December of 2023. Another player making a difference was Kyler Holthaus, who posted five points and six rebounds.

Meanwhile, Sunnyside didn't have too much trouble with Payson on Friday as they won 64-47.

Ironwood Ridge now has a losing record at 6-7. As for Sunnyside, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 7-9 record this season.

Ironwood Ridge came up short against Sunnyside when the teams last played back in January of 2024, falling 78-72. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Moreno, who went 9 of 11 on his way to 27 points in addition to seven steals and six boards. Now that Ironwood Ridge knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.