Redemption Game; Dragons to host the Bears.
January 31, 2023
It’s rematch time. The Bears will travel to Gretna tonight to face off for a highly anticipated game. It’s a new season, but the pressures are high.
“Our guys are really prepared, they’re ready,” head coach Galen Gullie said. “They have been talking about this (game) for quite some time now. No disrespect to the other teams that we played, I think Gretna is one that they have circled on their schedules.”
The Bears are coming out of the weekend with a 52-42 win against Grand Island. The team is ready for a challenge, Gretna is the team that is going to give it to them. Last year the Dragons defeated the Bears with a 2-point victory. The scoreboard at the end of the game showing 47-45.
The win is achievable but it’s going to be a hard road to get there.
“We want teams to adjust to us and us to adjust to them,” Gullie said. “We are just as good as well. We just got to go out there and prove it.”
Looking at the statistics, Gretna has the advantage, but the Bears have a couple tricks up their sleeves. The Dragons are currently ranked number two in the state and are eager to play.
“We’re coming off a big win against Omaha Northwest and were excited about that. And excited to play Bryan,” senior point guard for the Dragons Derek Dearking said. “There haven’t been any big changes made, we plan on playing our game and hoping that will be enough to beat them.”
Looking at how much the team has grown during the season, they have potential to go into this game and fight. Bryan is currently 9-6, and with this win they will have a better seed in Districts. The bears have been on a winning streak since Omaha South which resulted in 66-54, Westview 54-53, Omaha North 60-55 and Grand Island 52-42.
“We should play pretty good,” sophomore center Amare Bynum said. “We are a balanced team, we are getting there.”
Bynum is one of the leaders on the team, averaging about 15.3 points per game. Another leader is sophomore Amir Martin, who also averages 13 points per game. These are two players Gullie can count on to get the job done.
Tipoff for JV is at 5:30 pm, and 7:15 pm for varsity in the Grenta Gym.
After tonight’s game the Bears will host Lincoln High, who is 12-5 on Friday. The Bears last played against the Links in the 2019-20 season ending with 63-78 loss.
