Basketball Game Preview: Merced Bears vs. Enochs Eagles

The Merced Bears will face off against the Enochs Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.

Merced and Bear Creek faced off in a Battle of the Bears on Tuesday. Merced walked away with a 60-50 victory over Bear Creek. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Bears.

Diego Aguilar

Points (Career)

01/07/25 vs Bear Creek	22
12/26/24 vs Justin Garza	21
12/21/24 vs Bellflower	19
12/10/24 @ Immanuel	17
12/05/24 vs Pleasant Valley	14

Merced's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Diego Aguilar, who went 9 of 13 en route to 22 points. Those 22 points gave Aguilar a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Jordan Thomas, who almost dropped a double-double on nine points and nine rebounds.

Merced was working as a unit and finished the game with 13 assists. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their assist total in three consecutive matchups.

Meanwhile, Enochs came up short against McKinleyville two weeks ago and fell 69-59.

Merced is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 10-7 record this season. As for Enochs, their defeat dropped their record down to 9-4.