Basketball Recap: Ben Johnson's Big Game Can't Quite Lead Kearney over Scottsbluff

After flying high against Central on Friday, Kearney came back down to earth. The Kearney Bearcats fell 78-67 to the Scottsbluff Bearcats on Saturday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Friday (58), Kearney still had to take the loss.

Several Bearcats players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Ben Johnson, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and 12 rebounds. The contest was Johnson's fifth in a row with at least ten points. Jacob Webber was another key player, putting up 19 points and six rebounds.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Scottsbluff to victory, but perhaps none more so than Nate Kelley, who dropped a double-double on 20 points and 12 assists. The team also got some help courtesy of Rylee Meininger, who went 6 of 10 from beyond the arc on his way to 18 points and three steals.

Kearney's defeat dropped their record down to 5-2. As for Scottsbluff, the victory keeps them at an undefeated 7-0.

Kearney and Lincoln Northeast will round out the year against one another at at 3:45 p.m. on December 28th. Kearney knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past seven matchups -- so hopefully Lincoln Northeast likes a good challenge. After both having extra time off, Scottsbluff and Campbell County will shake off the cobwebs and square off against one another at 7:00 p.m. on January 3, 2025. Scottsbluff is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 71.9 points per game this season.