Preview: Beatrice Orangemen vs. Malcolm Clippers
The Beatrice Orangemen will head out on the road to face off against the Malcolm Clippers at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Beatrice knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with flashy point totals in its past four matchups -- so hopefully Malcolm likes a good challenge.
Beatrice has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won three games by 24 points or more this season. They blew past Aurora 63-39. Given Beatrice's advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 17th, while Aurora is ranked 179th), the result on Saturday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Malcolm unfortunately witnessed the end of their four-game winning streak on Tuesday. They took a 58-54 hit to the loss column at the hands of Northwest. Malcolm found out winning isn't easy when you don't work as a unit and rack up seven fewer assists than your opponent.
Despite the defeat, Malcolm got a solid performance out of Halle Dolliver, who dropped a double-double on 35 points and 14 rebounds. The contest was Dolliver's fifth in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Abby Zegar, who scored six points along with eight rebounds.
Beatrice pushed their record up to 4-0 with that victory, which was their fourth straight at home dating back to last season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.0 points per game. As for Malcolm, their defeat ended a nine-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 4-1.
Beatrice came up short against Malcolm in their previous meeting back in January, falling 42-37. Can Beatrice avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
