The Dana Hills Dolphins will look to defend their home court on Monday against the Mission Viejo Diablos at 7:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Dana Hills has 11 straight victories, Mission Viejo has four straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Even though Dana Hills has not done well against Aliso Niguel recently (they were 2-7 in their previous nine matchups), they didn't let the past get in their way on Friday. Dana Hills snuck past Aliso Niguel with a 72-68 win. Given Dana Hills' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 38th, while Aliso Niguel is ranked 185th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Mission Viejo was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap on Friday as they fell 55-51 to El Toro.
Mission Viejo's defeat came about despite a quality game from Alexander Frost, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and 11 rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Hudson Dunlap, who scored 11 points.
Dana Hills is on a roll lately: they've won 13 of their last 15 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 19-4 record this season. As for Mission Viejo, their loss was their fourth straight at home, which bumped their record down to 8-15.
Dana Hills strolled past Mission Viejo in their previous meeting last Friday by a score of 71-52. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Mission Viejo's Porter Baldwin, who dropped a double-double on 19 points and 15 rebounds. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Dana Hills still be able to contain him? There's only one way to find out.
