Empire hasn't had much luck against Tanque Verde recently, but that could start to change on Tuesday. It'll be Battle of the Birds when the Empire Ravens take on the Tanque Verde Hawks at 7:00 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
On Friday, Empire was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap as they fell 61-55 to Desert Christian. The Ravens have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Meanwhile, Tanque Verde won against Thatcher back in December of 2024 with 75 points and they decided to stick to that point total again on Wednesday. Tanque Verde strolled past The Gregory School with points to spare, taking the game 75-59. The win made it back-to-back victories for Tanque Verde.
Empire better focus on containing Rocco Haggard and Rich Knott as the pair were huge in Tanque Verde's win. Haggard went 9 of 18 on his way to 24 points, while Knott dropped a double-double on 18 points and ten assists. The dominant performance gave Knott a new career-high in assists. The team also got some help courtesy of Alejandro Espinoza, who posted eight points and six rebounds.
Tanque Verde has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 11-7 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 66.3 points per game. As for Empire, their loss dropped their record down to 9-11.
Empire came up short against Tanque Verde when the teams last played back in January of 2024, falling 69-62. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Tanque Verde's Philip Knott, who went 8 of 15 on his way to 18 points along with six rebounds and three steals. Now that Empire knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
