After having lost a blowout in their previous game against Bentonville West, the Hillcrest Vikings were happy to have found some success on Thursday. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past Bell 79-76. Given Hillcrest's advantage in MaxPreps's basketball rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 130th in Tennessee, while Bell is ranked 749th in Texas), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Jordan Allen continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 47 points along with nine rebounds. The match was his 14th in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Mario Morgan, who dropped a double-double on 11 points and ten rebounds.
Despite the loss, Bell still got an impressive performance from Elijah E thompson, who scored 28 points along with nine rebounds and four steals. That's the first time this season that E thompson pulled down eight or more rebounds. Another player making a difference was Joshua Dyer, who scored 12 points.
Even though they lost, Bell were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
Hillcrest's win bumped their record up to 11-4. As for Bell, they have traveled a rocky road recently, as they've lost ten of their last 12 games, which put a noticeable dent in their 4-12 record this season.
Hillcrest and Memphis School of Excellence will face off at 6:00 p.m. on January 5, 2024 without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Memphis School of Excellence will be looking to extend their current four-game winning streak. Bell will be staying on the road on Friday to face off against Kirby at 9:00 a.m. on December 29th. Kirby has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last five games.
