Bella Vista hasn't had much luck against Rio Linda recently, but that could start to change on Tuesday. The Bella Vista Broncos are headed away from home for the first time to challenge the Rio Linda Knights at 7:00 p.m. Hopefully Bella Vista focused on turnovers this week as the team gave up 32 last Friday.
Having struggled with 12 losses in a row dating back to last season, Bella Vista finally turned things around against El Dorado last Friday. They walked away with a 39-32 win over the Cougars.
Bella Vista had a senior duo take command as Ellie Thome earned 16 points plus seven steals and Mackenzie Dean went 5 for 6 en route to 10 points plus five rebounds and three blocks. The game was Thome's third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Emma Givens, who scored three points in addition to ten rebounds and four steals.
Bella Vista was working as a unit and finished the game with ten assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in December of 2023.
Meanwhile, Rio Linda put another one in the bag on Monday to keep their perfect season alive. They breezed by Mira Loma to the tune of 67-11. Fans of the Knights have seen this all before: every one of the games they've played this season has ended in a blowout of 20+ points.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Rio Linda to victory, but perhaps none more so than Savannah Grant, who went 8 for 18 en route to 18 points plus eight rebounds and four steals. The dominant performance also gave Grant a new career-high in three-point shooting accuracy (33%). LaRay Mitchell was another key player, going 7 for 8 en route to 15 points plus five rebounds and two steals.
Rio Linda's victory bumped their record up to 3-0. As for Bella Vista, their win ended an eight-game drought at home dating back to last season and bumped them up to 1-1.
Bella Vista came up short against Rio Linda when the teams last played back in November of 2023, falling 52-44. Can Bella Vista avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
