The Salem Hills Skyhawks will head out on the road to face off against the Payson Lions at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
On Tuesday, Salem Hills lost to Lehi on the road by a decisive 86-68 margin. Despite running the score up even higher than they did last Tuesday (65), Salem Hills still had to take the loss.
Despite the defeat, Salem Hills got a solid performance out of Chase Degraffenried, who scored 25 points along with 6 rebounds. Degraffenried scored a full 36.8% of Salem Hills' points, the second time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Ethan Hopkins, who scored 10 points.
Meanwhile, Payson had to kick off their season on the road last Tuesday, but they showed no ill effects. They secured a 77-73 W over Hurricane.
Payson's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Quinn Buys, who scored 19 points along with 5 rebounds. Legend Reynoso was another key contributor, dropping a double-double on 10 points and 10 rebounds.
This is the second loss in a row for Salem Hills and nudges their season record down to 0-2. As for Payson, their victory bumped their record up to 1-0.
Salem Hills strolled past Payson in their previous matchup back in November of 2022 by a score of 68-51. The rematch might be a little tougher for Salem Hills since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
