Basketball Game Preview: El Capitan Gauchos vs. Merced Bears

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Previous Games

01/14/25 - Home	67-33 W
01/23/24 - Away	45-41 W
01/04/24 - Home	58-44 W
01/23/23 - Home	53-22 W
01/03/23 - Away	47-13 W
+ 5 more games

El Capitan has gone 8-2 against Merced recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Thursday. The El Capitan Gauchos will face off against the Merced Bears at 6:30 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.

El Capitan is headed into the matchup after thoroughly thrashing Los Banos: they outscored them in every quarter. Everything went El Capitan's way against Los Banos on Tuesday as El Capitan made off with a 64-40 win. The Gauchos have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 13 contests by 24 points or more this season.

El Capitan's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Shantelle Magana, who posted 17 points in addition to six rebounds and three steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Madysen Dietz, who put up 14 points along with five boards and four steals.

Meanwhile, Merced earned a 66-55 victory over Golden Valley on Tuesday. The Bears pushed the score to 55-34 by the end of the third, a deficit the Cougars cut but never quite recovered from.

El Capitan's win was their eighth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 19-4. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 38.2 points. As for Merced, they are on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 13-9 record this season.

Everything came up roses for El Capitan against Merced in their previous meeting on January 14th, as the team secured a 67-33 victory. In that match, El Capitan amassed a halftime lead of 37-12, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Thursday.