Coming off a state championship year, the Westside girls basketball team planned to carry their successes into the current season. Currently, the team sits at an 18-4 record, is ranked number four in the state and has a two seed in their district. They seem to be doing well.

At this point in the season, it’s win or go home time for basketball, but the team has put itself in a solid position to get back to the state playoffs. The biggest obstacle would be Lincoln East, the number one seed in the district.

“They are a good team,” head coach Steven Clark said. “They have a starting point guard that leads the state in assists, they have a 6’1 sophomore playing wing, they have two other 6-footers and […] I think we’re really evenly matched.”

Lincoln East is also the fifth ranked team in the state, right under Westside. Should the two teams win, they will play each other to get to districts and it will be a tough win to get for both teams.

First, though, the team takes on Central tonight at 7 p.m. The team played Central before in the holiday tournament and won, but the game should still be one to look out for.

“It’ll be a physical game,” senior post Maya Solarana said. “I think we’ll be able to beat them again, though, with our experience with the past couple of games we’ve had against Bellevue West and Millard West which were big games for us.”

To recall, the team played Millard West and Bellevue West last week and won both games on buzzer beaters.  Millard West and Bellevue West are ranked in the top 10 teams in the state as well.

Now, to get to state, the key according to Clark is solid post play from Solarana, along with shooters doing well and most importantly, points off the bench.

“Usually district time comes down to your role players really stepping up, and you never know who it’s going to be,” Clark said.

With that in mind, the team will look to capitalize on their experience from last season’s post-season triumph and reach success once again in the district tournament.