Basketball Game Preview: Escondido Charter Tigers vs. Santana Sultans

The Escondido Charter Tigers will venture away from home to challenge the Santana Sultans at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Escondido Charter is headed into the matchup after thoroughly thrashing Tri-City Christian: they outscored them in every quarter. Escondido Charter blew past Tri-City Christian 49-24 on Thursday. Winning may never get old, but the Tigers sure are getting used to it with their third in a row.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Escondido Charter to victory, but perhaps none more so than Noelle ChampagNe, who dropped a double-double on ten points and ten steals. The dominant performance gave Champagne a new career-high in steals. Harper Mowrey was another key player, going 6 for 11 on her way to 12 points in addition to six boards and three steals.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Santana). They claimed a resounding 69-17 win over San Ysidro. Given the Sultans' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 548th, while the Cougars are ranked 1232nd), the result on Tuesday wasn't entirely unexpected.

Santana found their leader in freshman Sam Mora, who posted 23 points and seven rebounds. Mora continues to improve, besting her previous point total in each of the last three games she's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Chopee Shiro, who put up nine points and three steals.

Santana pushed their record up to 14-2 with the victory, which was their fourth straight on the road. As for Escondido Charter, their win bumped their record up to 9-7.

Escondido Charter came up short against Santana when the teams last played back in May of 2021, falling 38-30. Can Escondido Charter avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.