Basketball Game Preview: Pawnee City Indians vs. Exeter-Milligan/Friend Bobcats

Pawnee City is on a three-game streak of home wins, while Exeter-Milligan/Friend is on a four-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Pawnee City Indians will host the Exeter-Milligan/Friend Bobcats at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Pawnee City is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 51.6 points per game this season.

Last Tuesday, everything came up roses for Pawnee City against Lewiston as the team secured a 59-29 victory. The game was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 36-11.

Pawnee City had a senior duo take command as Anthony Kling went 7 for 15 on his way to 20 points in addition to seven boards and three steals and Jett Farwell almost dropped a double-double on 16 points and nine rebounds. The match was Kling's fourth in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Drew Menninga, who posted ten points.

Pawnee City was working as a unit and finished the game with 16 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in January of 2024.

Meanwhile, Exeter-Milligan/Friend strolled past Heartland with points to spare on Thursday, taking the game 51-37. Given the Bobcats' advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 33rd, while the Huskies are ranked 207th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Pawnee City is also on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 9-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 54.0 points per game. As for Exeter-Milligan/Friend, their win bumped their record up to 15-2.

Pawnee City was dealt a bruising 68-28 loss at the hands of Exeter-Milligan/Friend in their previous matchup on January 14th. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Exeter-Milligan/Friend's Grady Bresson, who went 9 of 14 en route to 19 points and eight rebounds. Now that Pawnee City knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.