The Hillsboro Eagles and the La Vega Pirates will round out the year against one another at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday at. Hopefully Hillsboro focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 19 last Tuesday.
Hillsboro has been a dominant force so far, but they're in the middle of a mini-slump at the moment. They might have been a little too into the holiday spirit, gifting Kennedale an easy 81-55 victory. While losing is never fun, Hillsboro can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 471st, while Kennedale is ranked 28th).
Hillsboro's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Tory Brooks, who scored 12 points, and Landon Tucker who scored 17 points along with five rebounds. The contest was Tucker's fourth in a row with at least ten points. Kameron Rose was another key contributor, scoring six points along with eight rebounds.
Meanwhile, La Vega entered their tilt with Rudder with three consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with four. The stars were shining brightly for La Vega in a 50-34 win over Rudder last Tuesday.
Monta Hilliard was his usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 18 points and ten rebounds. That makes it three consecutive games in which he has scored at least 25% of La Vega's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Qwae Willis, who scored nine points along with nine rebounds and six assists.
Hillsboro's defeat ended a seven-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 12-5. As for La Vega, their win bumped their record up to 7-3.
This contest is shaping up to be a blowout: Hillsboro hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having only averaged 55.4 points per game. It's a different story for La Vega, though, as they've been averaging only 55.8 points per game. The only thing between Hillsboro and another offensive beatdown is La Vega. Will they be able to keep them contained?
Hillsboro didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against La Vega in their previous matchup back in February of 2018, but they still walked away with a 68-62 win. Will Hillsboro repeat their success, or does La Vega have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
