The boys and girls basketball teams will travel to Kearney Nebraska to play the Bearcats on Dec, 9. After the recent success for both teams the girls will move to 2-1 and the boys to 3-0. The girls team final score was 66-50, and the boys was 77-70.
The girls team moved to 2-1 after the 66 to 50 victory. Westside remained dominant in the second and third and fourth quarter. The game started at a high tempo which the Warriors easily adapted too. Girls head coach Steve Clark talked about how they needed to find another way to score.
“We talked a lot about not every game your threes are going to be falling. So we got to develop some other ways to score,” Clark said.
After a large win over the Bulldogs on North Platte the girls team got a big mentality boost going into the 1-1 matchup against the dragons.
“I think it really gave them a boost mentally. They needed some positive things to happen early and I think that they gained some confidence,” Clark said.
Energy has been a big thing for the girls team and it is something that Clark thinks the success is coming from for the team this season.
“We talked about really pushing the energy on the defensive end and rebounding and being physical and I think that gave him a lot of confidence offensively,” Clark said.
With a change of pace for Westside the game started off very high paced with both teams having to keep attacking to try to get up on the board. The Warriors were led by Kara Stricklin who has 19 points. For Stricklin she wanted to be able to match what Gretna was bringing to the court.
“We knew we wanted to start off being aggressive so we could match their aggression,” Stricklin said.
With the right team mindset and ideas Clark was happy with how the team was attacking the hoop and making their shots.
“All of our girls were attacking the basket and settling for jump shots the whole game and then we hit a couple of threes that Gretna just started coming back a little bit,” Clark said.
Playing two games back to back and traveling across the state is no easy task but Clark has the team following the mindset that when they play they play.
“We follow ERO and there’s nothing we can’t control. We just have to go play so that’s our response,” Clark said.
“Just before we play one game at a time and you know, we’re just developing a lot of chemistry,” Clark said. “The girls really enjoy competing together and that’s what we just want to try and continue.”
For the boys team it was a very impressive game defeating the no.3 Gretna dragons with a final score of 77-74. Head coach Jim Simons was very impressed by the victory.
“I mean Gretna is really tough, you got two teams that are senior dominant, both teams kept throwing punches and kept making plays, so I thought our guys were really tough,” Simons said.
At the end of the game Kevin Stubblefield led the team with 19 points followed by CJ Mitchell with 18 and Ricky Loftin with 15. For Simons many stood out, but it took the whole team to pull off such a victory against a higher seeded team.
“I thought Caleb Benning did a tremendous job, CJ really shot well, Maddox Anderson hit two big threes, Tyson hit a big three and Kevin was really good. He finished around the rim. It took everybody you know and a lot of guys really played well,” Simons said.
With high hopes on the season and an early upset the boys team is working hard to make it back to Lincoln for the state tournament. Simons hopes to have the team get better and better by each game and progress the bond of the team.
“You know, we’ve talked all year that the top several teams are so close and we’re gonna be in games like that all year,” Simons said. “The rankings early on are kind of irrelevant. It’s just about trying to get better and trying to keep pushing forward and trying to progress so you can play your best in March.”
Going into double headers like this back to back is hard on a team, mentally and physically. Toughness is going to be needed for the boys team, and it will be a great preview for playing in the state tournament.
“It’s gonna be tough, we’re gonna are toughness is going to be tested, you know, but we told our guys if we want to do something in March,” Simons said. “You got to play somebody really good on Friday night and Lincoln at the state tournament, somebody like these guys, and then you got to turn around and play somebody really good on Saturday. So it’ll be a good test to see where we’re at with that.”
