The Maria Carrillo Pumas were the 59-52 winner over the Sonoma Valley Dragons when they last played one another back in December of 2022, but their luck changed this time around. Maria Carrillo took a 56-42 bruising from Sonoma Valley on Tuesday. Maria Carrillo found out winning isn't easy when you don't work as a unit and rack up nine fewer assists than your opponent.
When it comes to explaining why Maria Carrillo lost, one person who can't be blamed is Nathan Dipman. Despite the final result, he scored 12 points along with 8 rebounds and 3 steals. Another player making a difference was James Hillestad, who scored 8 points along with 5 rebounds and 3 steals.
Will Breall continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines for Sonoma Valley, dropping a double-double on 22 points and 14 rebounds. That makes it two consecutive games in which Breall has scored at least 25% of Sonoma Valley's points. Hudson Giarritta was another key contributor, scoring 14 points along with 7 rebounds.
Maria Carrillo's loss dropped their record down to 2-1. As for Sonoma Valley, the win was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 3-1.
Maria Carrillo will head out on the road to face off against Middletown at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Middletown will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps California Rankings (they are ranked 846th, while Maria Carrillo is ranked 349th). As for Sonoma Valley, they will be playing in front of their home fans against San Rafael at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. San Rafael knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with flashy point totals in its past three games -- so hopefully Sonoma Valley likes a good challenge.
