Three miles is all that separates Creighton Preparatory School and Westside High School. But on Tuesday night, as 1,800 devoted basketball fans filled the gym at 90th and Pacific, students from the two schools were feet from each other as the varsity basketball teams were slated to go head-to-head. That capacity crowd witnessed Westside defeat the Jr. Jays by a 59-55 score, which was their first win against their rivals since the 2013-14 school year. Senior Chase Thompson said the gap made the win all the more special for his team.

“It feels great,” Thompson said. “It’s the first time in, like, four years that we’ve beat them. Also, it’s the second sport we’ve beat them in this year.”

The game got off to a fast pace, and after eight minutes the Jr. Jays held a 19-14 lead. But, once Westside took the lead back at 20-19, it was the last lead Coach Josh Leudtke and his team would see until well into the second half because Westside went on an 18-1 second quarter run and held a 12 point lead at halftime. However, senior forward Akol Arop would open up the second half with six straight points to get the Jr. Jays. Thompson said holding off Arop was big for him in this game.

“It feels great that I played well against a high-major guy and then a bunch of division one and division two guys,” Thompson said.

In the midst of what turned out to be an instant classic fourth quarter, Thompson hit a layup to put the Warriors up 50-43. But this basket was special: he had just eclipsed the 1,000 career point mark, and he did it in a crucial time.

“One thousand points,” Thompson said. “I never would have thought that would happen.”

The Warriors would go on in a fight to the finish, and they wound up coming out on top of it, 59-55.

They will return to action on Friday night to take on Papillion-La Vista South on the road at 7:15 p.m.