Merced was the 67-61 winner over Ceres when they last played one another last Thursday, but their luck changed this time around. The Merced Bears fell just short of the Ceres Bulldogs by a score of 48-45 on Friday. While losing is never fun, the Bears can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 544th, while the Bulldogs are ranked 251st).
| 12/20/24 vs Ceres | 27 |
| 12/19/24 vs Sierra | 15 |
| 12/16/24 vs Tracy | 17 |
Despite the loss, Merced still got an impressive performance from Samantha Barragan, who went 10 of 24 en route to 27 points and six rebounds. The matchup was Barragan's third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Makiiyah Sims, who posted six points and nine boards.
Hailey Tsurui was nothing short of spectacular for Ceres: she put up 21 points. Those 21 points gave Tsurui a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Lilly Staggs, who had nine points.
Merced now has a losing record at 5-6. As for Ceres, the victory was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 9-3.
Merced didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next game, a 60-28 win against Stagg on the 21st. As for Ceres, they also wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next contest, a 40-19 victory against Livingston on the 21st.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
