Basketball Game Preview: Merced Bears vs. Los Banos Tigers

The Merced Bears will square off against the Los Banos Tigers at 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday. Merced is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 56.2 points per game this season.

If Los Banos heads into halftime all tied up, they better play a good second half: that's when Merced took over last week. Merced came out on top against El Capitan by a score of 72-63 on Friday.

Merced's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Valentin Vasquez, who went 7 for 11 on his way to 22 points. Vasquez continues to improve, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he's played. Diego Aguilar was another key player, going 5 of 9 en route to 15 points.

Meanwhile, Los Banos was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their sixth straight defeat. They fell 57-47 to Atwater. While losing is never fun, the Tigers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 596th, while the Falcons are ranked 167th).

Merced's win was their sixth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 15-9. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 61.8 points per game. As for Los Banos, their loss dropped their record down to 13-8.

Merced beat Los Banos 53-40 when the teams last played back in January. Will Merced repeat their success, or does Los Banos have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.