Basketball Game Preview: Exeter Monarchs vs. Central Valley Christian Cavaliers

Exeter is 1-9 against Central Valley Christian since January of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Exeter Monarchs will be playing in front of their home fans against the Central Valley Christian Cavaliers 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.

On Tuesday, Exeter was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap as they fell 74-70 to Kerman. The Monarchs have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Central Valley Christian, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Saturday. They enjoyed a cozy 63-46 win over Selma on Tuesday. Given the Cavaliers' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 399th, while the Bears are ranked 914th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Central Valley Christian pushed their record up to 15-9 with the victory, which was their fourth straight at home. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 63.3 points per game. As for Exeter, their loss was their first in the league, dropping their league record down to 4-1 and their overall record down to 16-5.

Exeter came up short against Central Valley Christian in their previous matchup two weeks ago, falling 53-41. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Central Valley Christian's Caden Lloyd, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 16 rebounds. Now that Exeter knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.