Basketball Recap: Jazelina Santillan's Big Game Can't Quite Lead Golden Valley over Merced

Golden Valley was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their fourth straight loss. They took a 66-55 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Merced Bears. The Cougars were down 55-34 at the end of the third quarter, which was just too much to recover from.

Golden Valley lost despite a true team effort on offense, the best among them being Jazelina Santillan, who posted 21 points. The dominant performance gave Santillan a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Zoe Gonzales, who scored 16 points.

Averie Steverson was her usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 24 points and 12 boards for Merced. Steverson also grabbed five steals, which is notable because Merced is 9-4 when she posts at least five steals, but 4-5 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Aliyah Solis, who earned 15 points and eight steals.

Golden Valley's defeat dropped their record down to 6-16. As for Merced, they have been performing well recently as they've won seven of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 13-9 record this season.

Golden Valley has already played their next contest, a 51-18 victory against Buhach Colony on the 30th. As for Merced, they also didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next matchup, a 65-38 loss against El Capitan on the 30th.