Basketball Game Preview: Chico Panthers vs. Pleasant Valley Vikings

The Chico Panthers will face off against the Pleasant Valley Vikings at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Chico comes in on three and Pleasant Valley on ten.

Chico will head into Tuesday's matchup hoping to keep the good times rolling: they had to skate by with only a three-point margin when they last took the court, which might have inspired the 26-point drubbing they dealt Red Bluff on Tuesday. Chico blew past Red Bluff 61-35. With the Panthers ahead 33-10 at the half, the game was all but over already.

Josie Carlos was a one-woman wrecking crew for Chico as she went 10 for 16 en route to 32 points along with eight boards and seven steals. The dominant performance gave Carlos a new career-high in points. Another player making a difference was Ellie Harrison, who posted seven points and five steals.

Meanwhile, Pleasant Valley was able to grind out a solid win over Enterprise on Tuesday, taking the game 47-34. Given the Vikings' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 20th, while the Hornets are ranked 381st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Pleasant Valley had a senior duo take command as Jada Nelms went 7 of 15 on her way to 19 points and Shannon Fong went 5 for 12 en route to 12 points and three steals. Those 19 points set a new season-high mark for Nelms. Nyah Fortune was another key player, putting up four points and five steals.

Chico is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 11-6 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 52.2 points per game. As for Pleasant Valley, their victory bumped their record up to 15-3.

Chico took a serious blow against Pleasant Valley in their previous meeting back in December of 2024, falling 69-28. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Pleasant Valley's Aj Gambol, who went 11 of 22 on her way to 27 points in addition to five assists and five rebounds. Now that Chico knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.