After flying high against the Patriot Warriors on Thursday, the Norte Vista Braves came back down to earth. Norte Vista took a 80-72 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Cougars on Friday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Thursday (65), Norte Vista still had to take the loss.
Norte Vista lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Hugo Morales, who dropped a double-double on 26 points and 12 rebounds. Morales is trending in the right direction, as he's improved his point production for three games straight. The team also got some help courtesy of Bryan Ramirez, who scored 23 points along with two steals.
Gradi Ekutshu continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines for Calvary Baptist, almost dropping a triple-double on 25 points, 16 rebounds, and nine blocks. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Ekutshu has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Pier Mancin, who scored 17 points along with three steals.
Norte Vista's loss ended a three-game streak of away wins and brought them to 13-9. As for Calvary Baptist, the win (which was their ninth in a row) raised their record to 21-4.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Norte Vista will square off against the Rams at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Ramona has now lost nine straight, and the team is hunting for their first win since December 28. As for Calvary Baptist, they will head out on the road to challenge the Warriors at 2:30 p.m. on Monday. Crossroads Christian will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps California Rankings (they are ranked 1404th, while the Cougars are ranked 588th).
