Basketball Recap: Alliance Drops Highest Score of Season Against Gordon-Rushville

Bulldogs

Team Score

01/21/25 @ Gordon-Rushville	79
01/04/25 vs Pine Bluffs	75
12/27/24 @ Broken Bow	73
01/03/25 vs Sidney	65
12/17/24 @ Torrington	63

Winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Alliance). They claimed a resounding 79-31 victory over the Gordon-Rushville Mustangs. Given the Bulldogs' advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 88th, while the Mustangs are ranked 255th), the result on Tuesday wasn't entirely unexpected.

Espen Lanik continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, going 9 of 15 on his way to 23 points along with seven steals and five assists. That's the most assists he has posted since back in January of 2024. The team also got some help courtesy of Seth Meyring, who went 7 for 15 en route to 15 points in addition to six boards and three steals.

They weren't the only one working in the assists department: Alliance was working as a unit and finished the game with 18 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Gordon-Rushville only racked up eight assists.

Despite the defeat, Gordon-Rushville saw an underclassman step up: freshman Braylon Holston went 7 of 12 on his way to 14 points along with seven rebounds and three steals.

Alliance has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 10-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 65.0 points per game. As for Gordon-Rushville, they are on a four-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 3-10.

Alliance will square off against Ogallala at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Ogallala knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 55 points or more in their past 14 games -- so hopefully Alliance likes a good challenge. Gordon-Rushville has already played their next contest (against Mullen), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing.