The Arcadia Titans pushed their score all the way to 57 on Thursday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a 70-57 hit to the loss column at the hands of Mesquite. While losing is never fun, Arcadia can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 124th, while Mesquite is ranked 19th).
Despite the loss, Arcadia saw an underclassman step up: Oliver Fay scored 12 points along with five assists. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Fay has scored all season. Jamison Fox was another key contributor, scoring ten points along with eight rebounds and two blocks.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Mesquite to victory, but perhaps none more so than Desean Middlebrook, who scored 21 points along with three blocks. Middlebrook has been hot recently, having posted 15 or more points the last eight times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Christian Garven, who scored 17 points along with five assists and five rebounds.
Arcadia's defeat dropped their record down to 10-10. As for Mesquite, they are on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 16-4 record this season.
Arcadia will be playing at home against Seton Catholic at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Seton Catholic focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up five on Thursday. As for Mesquite, they will head out on the road to challenge Marcos de Niza at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Marcos de Niza has struggled recently with four losses in a row, while Mesquite will arrive with three straight victories.
