Basketball Recap: Papillion-LaVista Takes a Loss

On Friday, the Papillion-LaVista Monarchs were within striking distance but couldn't close the gap as they fell 71-67 to the Pius X Thunderbolts. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Tuesday (59), the Monarchs still had to take the loss.

Despite the loss, Papillion-LaVista still got an impressive performance from Cedric Williams, who went 8 for 14 en route to 21 points and five rebounds. The dominant performance gave Williams a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Trey Richardson, who posted five points and five boards.

Papillion-LaVista dropped their record down to 6-8 with the defeat, which was their third straight on the road. That patch can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 60.3 points per game. As for Pius X, they have been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 8-6 record this season.

Papillion-LaVista and Pius X could both be facing uphill battles in their next games considering their disadvantage in the MaxPreps Nebraska Rankings. Papillion-LaVista (ranked 63rd) will meet Omaha Westside (ranked fourth) at 7:15 p.m. on January 24th. Papillion-LaVista has given up an average of 53.4 points per game this season, so hopefully the team got some defensive drills in this week. Meanwhile, Pius X will challenge Elkhorn North at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday down 50 places (55 vs. 5).