Basketball Game Preview: Bellevue East Chieftains vs. Bryan Bears

The Bellevue East Chieftains will square off against the Bryan Bears at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Bellevue East is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 51.8 points per game this season.

Last Saturday, Bellevue East came up short against Omaha North and fell 62-51. The Chieftains have struggled against the Vikings recently, as the game was their third consecutive lost matchup.

Despite the loss, Bellevue East got top-tier performance from Kris Brown, who went 8 for 11 en route to 22 points. With that strong performance, Brown is now averaging an impressive 15.1 points per game. Trey Tolbert was another key player, putting up nine points and three steals.

Meanwhile, Bryan was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their 19th straight defeat dating back to last season. They fell 60-47 to Fremont. While losing is never fun, the Bears can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 251st, while the Tigers are ranked 107th).

Bellevue East will need focus on slowing down Deon Darnell, one of several Bryan players who made an impact when they last played. He went 5 of 11 on his way to 14 points and seven rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Kaleb Kimble, who went 5 for 10 en route to 15 points and six boards.

Bellevue East's loss dropped their record down to 5-11. As for Bryan, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-18.

Bellevue East lost to Bryan at home by a decisive 65-51 margin when the teams last played back in December of 2022. Can Bellevue East avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.