Basketball Game Preview: Pacific Grove Breakers vs. Carmel Padres

Pacific Grove hasn't had much luck against Carmel recently, but that could start to change on Saturday. The Pacific Grove Breakers will head out to challenge the Carmel Padres at 7:00 p.m. Pacific Grove has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games.

Pacific Grove fought the good fight in their overtime contest against Alisal on Thursday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell 80-69 to the Trojans. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Tuesday (64), the Breakers still had to take the loss.

The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Andrew Nimri, who almost dropped a double-double on 25 points and nine boards. That's the most boards he has posted since back in January of 2024. Another player making a difference was Sergen Serttunc, who went 8 of 18 on his way to 20 points in addition to six boards and four blocks.

Palma typically has all the answers at home, but on Thursday Carmel proved too difficult a challenge. They secured a 69-65 W over the Chieftains.

Carmel is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 5-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 60.0 points per game. As for Pacific Grove, their defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 6-5.

Pacific Grove took a serious blow against Carmel when the teams last played back in February of 2024, falling 72-41. That game was all but decided by halftime, at which point Pacific Grove was down 43-16.