The Dinuba Emperors will face off against the Hanford Bullpups at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday. Dinuba will be strutting in after a win while Hanford will be coming in after a loss.
Dinuba is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat Kingsburg 78-21. With the Emperors ahead 47-12 at the half, the game was all but over already.
Jalissa Espirito continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, going 7 for 12 from beyond the arc on her way to 31 points and six steals. That makes it three consecutive games in which she has scored at least a third of Dinuba's points. Samantha Gonzalez was another key player, almost dropping a double-double on 11 points and nine steals.
Dinuba smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 20 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 12 offensive boards in nine consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, it's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 73-42, which was the final score in Hanford's tilt against Hanford West on Tuesday. While losing is never fun, the Bullpups can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 755th, while the Huskies are ranked 342nd).
Dinuba has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight contests, which provided a massive bump to their 9-5 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 55.5 points per game. As for Hanford, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 2-9.
Dinuba didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Hanford in their previous meeting back in January of 2024, but they still walked away with a 45-41 victory. Will Dinuba repeat their success, or does Hanford have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
