The Grand Island Islanders pushed their score all the way to 59 on Saturday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a 69-59 hit to the loss column at the hands of Papillion-LaVista. Even though they lost, Grand Island's still made a splash on offense and bumped their average scoring up to 51.2 points per game (they're now ranked -1th in scoring overall).
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. Another player making a difference was Evan McDonald, who scored 6 points along with 9 rebounds.
Papillion-LaVista found their leader in underclassman Demarcus Mccarty, who scored 26 points. The contest 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.
This is the second loss in a row for Grand Island and nudges their season record down to 1-3. As for Papillion-LaVista, the win got them back to even at 2-2.
Both squads are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. Grand Island will be home for the holidays to greet Lincoln Southeast at 7:45 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Lincoln Southeast focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up nine on Saturday. Papillion-LaVista will be home for the holidays to greet Bellevue East at 7:15 p.m. on Friday.
