Ironwood is on a 21-game streak of home wins (dating back to last season), while Willow Canyon is on a eight-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Ironwood Eagles will welcome the Willow Canyon Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Ironwood knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past 11 matchups -- so hopefully Willow Canyon likes a good challenge.
On Tuesday, Ironwood humbled Sunrise Mountain with an 84-52 victory. The Eagles have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 11 contests by 20 points or more this season.
Meanwhile, Willow Canyon earned a 55-44 victory over Sunrise Mountain on Friday. Given the Wildcats' advantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 23rd, while the Mustangs are ranked 118th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Ironwood better focus on containing Jaydon Hayes and Maurice Carter II as the pair were huge in Willow Canyon's win. Hayes went 7 for 11 en route to 20 points and five steals, while Carter II went 7 of 11 to rack up 20 points in addition to seven boards and four steals. The dominant performance gave Hayes a new career-high in steals. Kaleel Kelly was another key player, putting up six points and three steals.
Willow Canyon was working as a unit and finished the game with 15 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Sunrise Mountain only racked up nine assists.
Ironwood has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won ten of their last 11 games, which provided a nice bump to their 18-6 record this season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 30.3 points. As for Willow Canyon, their win bumped their record up to 22-2.
Ironwood couldn't quite finish off Willow Canyon when the teams last played back in January and fell 74-71. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Carter II, who went 8 for 11 on his way to 26 points along with five assists and three steals. Now that Ironwood knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
