Even though the Grand Island Islanders scored an imposing 59 points on Saturday, the Papillion-LaVista Monarchs still came out on top. Papillion-LaVista took their match against Grand Island 69-59. With that win, Papillion-LaVista brought their scoring average up to 54.5 points per game.
Papillion-LaVista found their leader in underclassman Demarcus Mccarty, who scored 26 points. The match was Mccarty's fourth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Brock Rahl, who scored 15 points.
Grand Island's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Mukadi Mukoma, who scored 21 points, and Babur Choul who scored 17 points along with 6 rebounds. Mukoma scored a full 35.6% of Grand Island's points, the fourth time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Evan McDonald was another key contributor, scoring 6 points along with 9 rebounds.
The win got Papillion-LaVista back to even at 2-2. As for Grand Island, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 1-3.
Both teams are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. Papillion-LaVista will be home for the holidays to greet Bellevue East at 7:15 p.m. on Friday. Grand Island will be home for the holidays to greet Lincoln Southeast at 7:45 p.m. on Friday. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are ranked near one another in Nebraska (Lincoln Southeast is ranked 187th, while Grand Island is ranked 202nd).
