Just one day after losing at home to rival Creighton Prep the Warriors hit the road and took down the undefeated, number one team in the state Lincoln Southwest Silverhawks 68-63. The Silverhawks were the last undefeated team in Class A entering the game 9-0 and coming off a ten point win against crosstown rival Lincoln Southeast the previous day.
These teams faced off three times last year once in the regular season and twice in the postseason where the Silverhawks upset the Warriors at home in the district finals but the Warriors getting their revenge in the first round of the state championship tournament
Westside got out to an early lead however in the first Donnie Barfield broke the rim on a powerful dunk that put the Warriors up 7-0 and It took about half an hour before play resumed.
Head coach Jim Simons voiced his thoughts on the rim break.
“I had never seen it before, when I talked with the referees they had never seen it before,” Simons said. “We told our guys it is what it is, we don’t plan for that stuff like an NBA arena.”
The Silverhawks took advantage of the stop in play ending the first quarter leading 21-19. The second quarter was a back and forth affair with both teams evened up at 36 going into halftime.
The second half between the top teams in Class A was just like the first with each team going back and forth eventually the Warriors got out to a two point lead by the end of the third quarter then battled their way out to a five point win.
Barfield played a key part in victory coming off a lackluster game against the Jr. Jays.
“It meant a lot, especially losing to Prep,” Barfield said. “We wanted to show people that we are capable of winning like we should and aren’t scared of the crowd.”
For Westside it was a full team effort in the win with four out of the five starters cracking double digit points, Barfield the pack in points with 17 tacking on four rebounds as well. Both Emre Gedik and London Dada had a double-double both putting on 13 points and 11 rebounds of their own with Will Preston adding 11 points of his own.
For the Silverhawks they were led by Uzziah and Mekkiah Sanders, They put up 37 combined points, Uzziah with 22 and Mekkiah with 15 along with Junior Dakari Wilson adding 11. This was the Silverhawks first loss of the season dropping to 9-1 on the year
The Warriors take their fourth win out of five tries against the silverhawks with the last three matchup having great importance, a district championship game, state championship tournament game and a battle for the number one spot. It was the first time in the school’s history they won against the number one team in the state on the road.
Westside is back in action on Friday January 16. When they get another opportunity on their revenge tour as they get a state championship rematch against a top 10 Papillion South who returned a lot of starters from last season.
Coach Simons is getting his team ready for the Titans after a long two weeks of basketball
“We’ve been so busy having seven games in twelve days so we haven’t got a good look at them,” Simons said. “But they are an established program with a veteran coaching staff, they are competitive and tough.”
