Basketball Game Preview: Lincoln Southwest Silver Hawks vs. Bellevue West Thunderbirds

The Lincoln Southwest Silver Hawks will head out to face off against the Bellevue West Thunderbirds at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.

Last Wednesday, Lincoln Southwest strolled past Elkhorn South with points to spare, taking the game 66-48. Given the Silver Hawks' advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 33rd in Nebraska, while the Storm are ranked 118th in Nebraska), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Bellevue West had already won five in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 20.4 points) and they went ahead and made it six on Wednesday. They really took it to the Bunnies for the full four quarters, racking up a 73-31 victory. The Thunderbirds have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won eight matches by 20 points or more this season.

Bellevue West's win came from a few key players Lincoln Southwest will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Stevie Harley, who posted 11 points. Jaycee Woodard was another key player, going 5-for-6 to rack up 14 points.

Bellevue West's win was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 16-8. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 70.0 points over those games. As for Lincoln Southwest, their victory ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 16-7.

Lincoln Southwest came up short against Bellevue West in their previous meeting on February 11th, falling 63-52. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Bellevue West's Vanna Reitsma, who went 8-for-12 en route to 18 points and four steals. Now that Lincoln Southwest knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.