Pioneer is 2-8 against Vela since January of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Pioneer Diamondbacks will face off against the Vela Sabercats at 7:30 p.m. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Pioneer had no problem doing just that on Friday. They managed a 60-55 win over the Wildcats. With that win, Pioneer brought their scoring average up to 50.2 points per game.
Pioneer's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Joshua Gaither led the charge by scoring 18 points along with eight rebounds and four steals. It was the first time this season that Gaither pulled down eight or more rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Matthew Maldonado, who went 6 for 7 from beyond the arc en route to 21 points and 0 assists.
Meanwhile, Vela had already won 19 in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 29.5 points), and they went ahead and made it 20 on Friday. They snuck past Nixon with a 66-60 victory. Given Vela's advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 132nd, while Nixon is ranked 302nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Pioneer is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five games, which provided a nice bump to their 22-14 record this season. As for Vela, their victory bumped their record up to 34-5.
Pioneer came up short against Vela when the teams last played on February 2nd, falling 52-47. Can Pioneer avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
