Boys basketball blows out Lincoln Southwest

The Westside boys basketball team rebounded from back to back losses with an 86-57 victory over Lincoln Southwest on Tuesday, Jan.31. The Warriors have shot significantly better than the rest of their games from this season, with 48% from the three-point line. Senior Tate Odvody, who had a season-high 23 points, connected on five 3-pointers in the game. Junior Caleb Benning had 16 points and was perfect from beyond the arc with four 3-pointers. The Warriors scored a season high 86 points in the win over the Silver Hawks.

“Just putting in the work in practice,” Benning said. “We haven’t shot it well all season. The whole message this week was stay together, keep working because at some point, the shots gotta fall. Tonight was the start of something special.”

This game is the start of a six-game home stretch for the Warriors, who are 4-1 at home this season. After two straight losses, the intensity in practices has been really important.

“Keep practicing hard,” Benning said.“The intensity in practice is up a lot. We’re sick and tired of losing. We don’t like it. We got a nice little home stretch here, we’ve proven that it’s tough to beat us here, so we’re gonna keep that going.”

The Warriors only had one day of practice from their last game, before they faced Lincoln Southwest. Westside head coach Jim Simons emphasized that the Warriors just did not shoot that well in games.

“I wish we could say there was a magic button that we pushed,” Simons said. “But in all honesty, we had one day of practice. We played Saturday against Papillion-LaVista South, took Sunday off, practiced Monday, and then played Tuesday. So probably not a lot of what we did in practice from just that one day. A lot of it is that we have guys who are good shooters who have not shot the ball as well as they have at various points during the year, and playing at home certainly helps. There’s a comfort level of playing at home in a gym that we’ve done a lot of shooting in. Early in the game, we saw some shots go in and it elevated confidence. Guys were feeling good, comfortable, and confident. We hope that continues from there. We know we’ve got a team that’s a better shooting team than what we’ve shown. We’ve talked about shooting, it’s kind of like hitting in baseball, sometimes it comes and goes. Sometimes it becomes more mental than anything else. Our hope is that we’re in a good mental place right now and starting to shoot the ball the way we want to.”

Westside’s next game is against Elkhorn South on Friday, Feb. 3. The Warriors will face the leading scorer in Class A, Alec Noonan. The senior averages 19.1 points per game. Coach Simons is focused mostly on forcing Noonan to take tough and contested shots, as well as guarding him off the ball.

“He’s a very good offensive player.” Simons said, “He’s leading Class A in scoring. He does a lot of things well for him, He’s a very good shooter, a very good driver, finishes well around the rim, he plays super physical, so we’ll have our hands full with him. Doing a good job on the ball, guarding him and also off the ball. Making sure our rotations are good. We’re hoping not to give him anything easy. He’s a good enough player, he’s gonna score, You’re not gonna shut him out. When you play a good player, you talk about getting them to take tougher shots, can you force them to settle for maybe some tough twos and some contested shots. Knowing that they’re gonna make a few of those, but you’re gonna feel a lot better about your chances if they’re gonna work hard for their points and maybe do it on some tougher shots. If youre just giving them rhythm, catch and shoot jump shots or uncontested things at the rim, you’re gonna have a long night, cause he’s not gonna miss many of those.”

The Warriors will host Elkhorn South on Friday, Feb. 3. The game will tip off at 7:15 p.m. in the main gym. The matchup will be live-streamed on Warrior Television and on YouTube.