vs
| 12/15/23 - Home | 54-38 W |
| 01/07/22 - Away | 29-40 L |
| 01/08/21 - Home | 58-49 W |
| 12/30/19 - Neutral | 64-39 W |
| 12/06/19 - Neutral | 58-28 W |
| + 5 more games |
Papillion-LaVista is 9-1 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 playing at home against the Bellevue East Chieftains at 5:30 p.m. After both made easy work of their previous opponents, one won't be so lucky on Friday.
Papillion-LaVista is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They breezed by Omaha South to the tune of 84-11 on Tuesday. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 63-6.
Rease Murtaugh continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, going 9 of 17 on her way to 21 points along with seven rebounds and five steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Taliyah Jackson, who went 5 for 8 en route to 10 points in addition to six boards and five assists.
Papillion-LaVista smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 25 offensive boards. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 7 offensive rebounds per game earlier this season, but in their last 15 contests they've averaged 9.8.
Meanwhile, Bellevue East had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 25 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Tuesday. They claimed a resounding 59-15 victory over the Bulldogs. Given the Chieftains' advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 12th, while the Bulldogs are ranked 257th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Bellevue East found their leader in sophomore Tniyah Wilson-Smith, who went 8 of 12 on her way to 17 points and six rebounds. Wilson-Smith has been hot, having also posted two or more steals the last five times she's played. Another player making a difference was Mya Weber, who posted eight points and nine boards.
Bellevue East's win bumped their record up to 12-3. As for Papillion-LaVista, they moved to 8-8 with that victory, which also ended their three-game losing streak.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the two teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Papillion-LaVista hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 60.2 points per game. However, it's not like Bellevue East struggles in that department as they've been averaging 60 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Papillion-LaVista strolled past Bellevue East when the teams last played back in December of 2023 by a score of 54-38. Does Papillion-LaVista have another victory up their sleeve, or will Bellevue East turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
