It'll be Battle of the Birds when the Santa Rita Eagles challenge the Rio Rico Hawks at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday... Santa Rita is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 52.1 points per game this season.
If Santa Rita beats Rio Rico with 65 points on Wednesday, it's going to be the squad's new lucky number: they've won their past two contests with that exact score. Santa Rita really took it to St. John Paul II Catholic for the full four quarters, racking up a 65-35 win. The game was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 42-15.
David Gonzales continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, dropping a double-double on 28 points and ten boards. He also grabbed five steals, which is notable because Santa Rita is 2-1 when he posts at least three steals, but 1-3 otherwise. Vernon Johnson JR was another key player, putting up ten points along with five boards and four steals.
Santa Rita smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 19 offensive boards. That's the most offensive rebounds they've posted since the start of last season.
Meanwhile, Rio Rico was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their 12th straight loss dating back to last season. They took a blow against Mica Mountain, falling 79-43. While losing is never fun, the Hawks can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 265th, while the Thunderbolts are ranked 93rd).
Rio Rico's defeat dropped their record down to 0-11. As for Santa Rita, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 3-4.
Santa Rita was dealt a bruising 69-34 loss at the hands of Rio Rico in their previous meeting back in January of 2016. Can Santa Rita 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
