Basketball Game Preview: Bellevue West Thunderbirds vs. Bellevue East Chieftains

A classic East v. West matchup is on the schedule. The Bellevue West Thunderbirds will face off against the Bellevue East Chieftains at 7:45 p.m. on Wednesday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Bellevue West sitting on seven straight wins and Bellevue East on four.

Last Friday, Bellevue West strolled past Lincoln Southwest with points to spare, taking the game 65-46. The Thunderbirds pushed the score to 52-31 by the end of the third, a deficit the Silver Hawks cut but never quite recovered from.

Da'Nyla Tatum

Points (Career)

02/28/25 vs Lincoln Southwest	22
02/14/25 @ Bellevue East	21
01/24/25 @ Papillion-LaVista South	20
12/17/24 vs Park Hill South	20
12/20/24 vs Marian	17

Bellevue West can attribute much of their success to Stevie Harley, who went 6-for-13 to rack up 17 points and seven rebounds, and Da'Nyla Tatum, who shot 50% from the field on her way to 22 points. The dominant performance gave Tatum a new career-high in points. Another player making a difference was Yirah Sears, who made all 5 shots she took racking up 11 points.

Bellevue West was working as a unit and finished the game with 15 assists. They are 16-5 when they've passed the ball that well.

Meanwhile, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Bellevue East beat Papillion-LaVista South 52-48 on Friday. Given the Chieftains' advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 13th, while the Titans are ranked 77th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Bellevue West's victory was their fifth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 17-8. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 69.0 points over those games. As for Bellevue East, their win bumped their record up to 21-4.

Bellevue West didn't have too much breathing room in their match against Bellevue East in their previous matchup back in February, but they still walked away with a 77-71 victory. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Bellevue East's TNiyah Wilson-Smith, who shot 50% from the field en route to 33 points along with seven boards and three steals. Now that she's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Bellevue West still be able to contain Wilson-Smith? There's only one way to find out.