Preview: Papillion-LaVista Monarchs vs. Bellevue East Chieftains
Papillion-LaVista is 8-1 against Bellevue East since February of 2015, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Papillion-LaVista Monarchs will be home for the holidays to greet the Bellevue East Chieftains at 7:15 p.m. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the pair posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Papillion-LaVista scored the most points they've had all season to find success on Saturday. They came out on top against Grand Island by a score of 69-59. With that win, Papillion-LaVista brought their scoring average up to 54.5 points per game.
Papillion-LaVista found their leader in underclassman Demarcus Mccarty, who scored 26 points. The contest was Mccarty's fourth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Brock Rahl, who scored 15 points.
Meanwhile, Bellevue East's five-game losing streak dating back to last season came to an end on Tuesday. They snuck past Omaha Northwest with a 58-52 victory. For those curious, yes, that was the biggest win Bellevue East has managed all season.
Trey Tolbert continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 19 points. That makes it four consecutive games in which he has scored at least 25% of Bellevue East's points. Ammi Williams was another key contributor, scoring ten points.
The victory got Papillion-LaVista back to even at 2-2. As for Bellevue East, their victory bumped their record up to 1-4.
Keep an eye on the arc in Friday's game: Papillion-LaVista have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 4.8 threes per game. However, it's not like Bellevue East struggles in that department as they've been averaging only 5.6 threes per game. Given Papillion-LaVista's sizeable advantage in that area, Bellevue East will need to find a way to close that gap.
Papillion-LaVista didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Bellevue East when the teams last played back in January of 2022, but they still walked away with a 45-41 win. Will Papillion-LaVista repeat their success, or does Bellevue East have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
