The Bellevue West Thunderbirds fought the good fight in their overtime game against the Omaha Westside Warriors on Saturday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They took a 80-76 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Warriors. It was the first time this season that Bellevue West let down their fans at home.
Bellevue West's defeat came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Kenzie Melcher, who went 6 for 8 from beyond the arc en route to 27 points and 0 assists. Those 27 points set a new season-high mark for her. Another player making a difference was Ahnica Russell-brown, who scored 16 points along with six assists and five rebounds.
Kara Stricklin continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines for Omaha Westside, scoring 22 points along with six rebounds. That makes it three consecutive games in which Stricklin has scored at least 25% of Omaha Westside's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Sanai Foster, who dropped a double-double on 19 points and 12 rebounds.
Bellevue West's defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 5-4. As for Omaha Westside, they are on a roll lately: they've won six of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 8-4 record this season.
Bellevue West and Lincoln will face off at 5:30 p.m. on January 5, 2024 without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Hopefully Lincoln focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 30 two weeks ago. Omaha Westside and Omaha Central will face off at 1:45 p.m. on January 2, 2024 without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Omaha Central is currently enjoying a perfect season and no doubt want to keep things rolling.
