Basketball Game Preview: Gering Bulldogs vs. Bennington Badgers

The Gering Bulldogs just played yesterday, but they'll still head out to face the Bennington Badgers at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.

Gering is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 76 points on Saturday, they were much more limited against Crete on Friday. They were beaten by the Cardinals 62-22. While losing is never fun, the Bulldogs can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 167th, while the Cardinals are ranked 37th).

Meanwhile, Bennington was just a bucket shy of victory on Friday and fell 63-62 to Scottsbluff. While the Badgers didn't get the win, they did start the game off strong, beating the Bearcats 21-15 in the first quarter.

Gering will have to keep a close watch on Austin Kaiser and Gavin Olson, a pair of players who had a big impact on Bennington's prior game. Kaiser went 7 for 15 on his way to 23 points in addition to six assists and five boards, while Olson dropped a double-double on 16 points and 18 boards. The dominant performance gave Olson a new career-high in boards. The team also got some help courtesy of Jace Fitzgerald, who posted 11 points and five rebounds.

Even though they lost, Bennington smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 14 offensive boards. That's the most offensive rebounds they've managed all season.

Gering has been struggling recently as they've lost three of their last four contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 3-5 record this season. As for Bennington, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-5.