Basketball Game Preview: Mountain House Mustangs vs. Vanden Vikings

The Mountain House Mustangs are taking a road trip to challenge the Vanden Vikings at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Fans were treated to a Battle of the Mustangs on Thursday. Mountain House took their match with ease, bagging a 61-20 win over Oakdale. Mountain House pushed the score to 41-18 by the end of the third, a deficit Oakdale had little chance of recovering from.

Jariah Indalecio

Steals

02/13/25 vs Oakdale	3
02/11/25 @ East Union	7
02/06/25 @ Central Catholic	8
02/04/25 vs Patterson	4
01/30/25 vs Sierra	2
+ 8 more games

Erica Foster and Jariah Indalecio were among the main playmakers for Mountain House as the former almost dropped a double-double with 20 points and nine rebounds and the latter dropped a double-double with 21 points and 13 boards. Indalecio is also on a roll when it comes to steals, as she's now grabbed two or more in each of the last 13 games she's played. Niaja Harris was another key player, putting up ten points and five steals.

Meanwhile, everything came up roses for Vanden against Rodriguez on Thursday as the squad secured an 81-22 victory. Given the Vikings' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 119th, while the Mustangs are ranked 662nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Mountain House better keep an eye on Calonni Holloway. She was instrumental in Vanden's win, earning 18 points. Another player making a difference was Makayla Smith, who posted 16 points.

Vanden has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 14 of their last 16 games, which provided a nice bump to their 19-9 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 29.3 points over those games. As for Mountain House, their win was their ninth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 23-5.

Mountain House took a serious blow against Vanden in their previous matchup back in February of 2020, falling 78-29. Thankfully for Mountain House, Joia Armstrong (who almost dropped a double-double with 24 points and nine rebounds) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.