The Westside girls basketball team played an intense game vs Papio on Jan. 23, the girls went into overtime but ended up winning 47-45. After a tough first game that week the girls bounced back with the win against Papio, and Millard South.
Coach Steve Clark talks about how the girls handled the overtime, and the roughness of the papio girls.
“It was a pretty intense game and the girls did a good job of staying composed throughout the game,” Clark said. “Composure is one of our core values and it’s games like that where we really need to rely on who we are so we can achieve the outcome we are striving for. Keeping our focus on the season goal is a priority and really helps in the games we had this week.”
The girls had many games that week, which led to being physically and mentally tired. They lost to Millard North 67-32 which is unlike the girls. But they bounced back on Friday Jan. 23, and Saturday Jan. 24.
Coach Clark talks about how they bounced back after the tough game against Millard North, to come back and beat Papio in overtime.
“After a rough game on Tuesday they all did a great job being reliable, competing, and keeping our composure to get two quality wins on Friday and Saturday,” Clark said.
The papio girls were aggressive on the court which led to the westside girls needing to be composed as a team. Coach Clark says they needed to focus on themselves and their skills and that is exactly what they did.
“We tried to focus on keeping their really good guard out of the paint, and handling their aggressive pick and roll defense. I thought we did a great job with those things,” Clark said.
In the first half the girls were ahead, they held the lead to the very end where they ended up being tied at the end. They kept their energy up the whole game which led to the big win. Clark explains how they controlled their emotions and how it affected the game.
“We were up 22-15 at half, and thought we did a good job of adjusting to their energy, and the emotions to start the game on the road,” Clark said. “We hadn’t been in OT yet, so they handled it well.”
The girls haven’t gone into overtime this season yet, but Coach Clark talks about how ready they were, and their goals they had for overtime.
“Being on defense to seal an OT win is stressful, and they showed a lot of heart by sticking together and playing really good team defense during the final possession,” Clark said. “OT goals are to win each possession, play together, and play smart.”
The team carried 7 seniors on the team but the whole team led to the big win. Clark talks about the parts of the team that impacted the win, starting with their shooters, and their posts. The girl’s defense was on point. Papio only scored one three that game, and the barley had no offensive rebounds which really impacted the game positively for the Westside girls.
“I think the whole team had an impact on the game. Our guards did a great job on their shooters, as Papio only made 1 three for the game. Our posts scored in the paint and didn’t allow their posts to get hardly any offensive rebounds,” Clark said.
During the game the girls took many timeouts to regroup and talk through what was going on in the game. Talking through the thoughts of the players and the coaches, explaining what everyone was seeing, but also what plays they want to run for the next moments of the game. Sometimes just taking a break to try and reset the momentum, Coach Clark talks about this.
“During timeouts we try to share what we are seeing and what we need to adapt and adjust to. We sometimes like a particular play we want to run, and sometimes just reset the momentum, and make sure we are staying composed and to keep competing,” Clark said.
This week the girls have a couple of games, first Feb.3 against Omaha South and then a tough one against Omaha North on Feb.7. Catch them on the court.
