The boys basketball team won their MLK classic game against Rockford Auburn. The non-conference game was played in Council Bluffs on Monday. The Warriors won 73-56.
Senior Kevin Stubblefield has been leading the Warriors in points this season with 17 points per game. The senior had 26 points against Rockford Auburn.
“Kevin’s a really good player. He’s really talented offensively, and presents some challenges for opponents because he’s a bigger, stronger player. That allows him to be pretty effective inside. He’s also worked hard to improve his three point shooting and ball handling, so he’s capable of playing on the perimeter too,” head coach Jim Simons said.
Stubblefield’s hot start to the year isn’t new. In his junior season, he was an all-state player. Stubblefield’s emergence as a scoring threat has caused problems for opposing defenses. He’s a big player at 6”4, giving him a lot of power in the paint, but his ball handling and shooting skills give him a lot of guard-like abilities to drive through traffic and shoot from range.
The non-conference win showed how prepared this team can be. For the Warriors, this game was business as usual.
“We were able to see a couple of films on them and they were able to see a couple of films on us,” Simons said. “But there’s not the familiarity there like there is with playing the teams we play on a regular basis. We just talked to a lot of our guys, a lot of them have experience playing in summer or club basketball, and in those games you don’t have a lot of knowledge of your opponent, you kind of just go out and play.”
Westside’s players stay prepared in the offseason with club and AAU basketball. This gives the Warriors the ability to go out and stick to their fundamentals, despite the lack of film on their opponents.
The team will continue their regular season conference play against 2-8 Omaha South. Senior Ricky Loftin played for two years at South, but since then the program has seen a complete turnaround.
“He went to school there for two years,” Simons said. “The entire South program is different now. The entire coaching staff is new. All of the guys Ricky played with are no longer there. South is a school that’s had a pretty significant turnover. I’m sure there will be something there for Ricky that will be unique. Those are more emotional games if you’re playing against coaches and players that you played with.”
These games will always have emotional ties, but for Loftin, it’s business as usual. Since losing a long-time coach following their 2020 state tournament run, the Packers have had increasingly difficult seasons, going 3-20 last year and 10-13 the year before. For coach Simons, the objective of the game is clear. “Continue to get better. Every game we play is an opportunity to get better,” Simons said.
The Warriors will tip off against Omaha South at 7:15 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 19.
