The Westside varsity boys basketball team went 2-0 last week to improve their season record to 3-1. The Warriors took down Omaha North 79-55, and followed up that with a dominant win  over Norfolk 86-44. Westside head coach Jim Simons said he was glad the team bounced back after a tough loss to Millard North. 

“We were proud that they responded really well to Millard North,” Simons said. “Millard North was outstanding Saturday and we were average, and I kind of said the same thing after the game on Saturday, when you have a very good team play as well Millard North did, and then we play as we did, the result is what it was and it wasn’t very close on Saturday.”

Simons said a key factor in handling Norfolk was being able to shut down point guard Kamari Moore, who is the third leading scorer in the state and averages 22 points a game.

“We did a great job defensively with Kamari Moore,” he said. “He’s had just a tremendous start to the season. He’s shot it at a really high percentage and he’s made really difficult shots so we knew coming in we’d have to do a really good job on him. We did a great job with our full court pressure, got him sped up, got the game at our tempo, and just made things really difficult for him.” 

Westside senior Charlie Blum said the team needs to practice well to perform well in games, and believes it was a key factor in their tough loss to Millard North.   

“Our biggest problem has been following up after a bad practice,” Blum said. “We got destroyed by Millard North because we didn’t have a good practice and we kind of have like an NBA schedule, we just need to work hard everyday in practice, and get better each time.” 

Simons said he is glad to have the high school basketball atmosphere back, and said seeing the students and hearing the band is something he and the team have missed this season.

“Yeah I mean it was a fun atmosphere we haven’t had in a year and a half,”  he said. “You know the band was playing to the crowd on both sides. You know basketball looks like it used to be, so it was a really fun atmosphere.”

The boys basketball team is back in action tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Lincoln Southeast.