Basketball Game Preview: Berkley Bears vs. Avondale Yellowjackets

Two dominant guards in Hailey Kirkwood and Amaria Daniel are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Berkley Bears will take on the Avondale Yellowjackets at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Berkley is headed into the match out to prove that what happened against Heritage on Tuesday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Berkley was beaten by Heritage 63-35. While losing is never fun, the Bears can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Michigan basketball rankings (they are ranked 94th, while the Hawks are ranked 11th).

While Avondale didn't have the best season last year (they finished 8-15), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past. They took their contest on Monday with ease, bagging a 62-23 victory over North Farmington. The Yellowjackets pushed the score to 50-13 by the end of the third, a deficit the Raiders had no chance of recovering from.

The win was the third in a row for Avondale, bringing their record for this year to 6-1. Those victories came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 22.3 points per game. As for Berkley, their loss dropped their record down to 6-2.

Berkley didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Avondale in their previous matchup back in January of 2024, but they still walked away with a 51-46 victory. Will Berkley repeat their success, or does Avondale have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.