Westside had six seniors honored in their last regular season game of the season against Lincoln East. Westside played lights outs and sent their seniors out strong with an emphatic 82-52 win. Westside played one of if not their most complete games of the season managing to drop 82 points on the offensive side while stifling the Spartan offense to less than 40% from the field.
Both teams started the game back and forth with Westside spreading out the ball having three separate players cash in a triple in the first quarter while Lincoln was led by their leading scorer coming into the day Tyler Mick. Westside came out scoring right out of the gates getting up 13-6 early on the Spartans with both teams trading buckets until the first quarter ended at 20-13 lead for Westside.
It was during the second quarter that the Warriors took full control of the game going on a 15-2 run that ballooned their lead to 22 at one point helped by huge buckets from everyone, mostly London Dada from beyond the arc and Will Preston underneath the rim. Westside put a wall on the defensive end holding the Spartans to only seven points in the second quarter and leading 40-20 after one half.
The third quarter started off slow but heated up real fast and became the Dada show. Dada dropped 14 out of the Warrior 23 third quarter points by himself including three straight threes with another and one as well. This third quarter performance along with suffocating defense once again by the Warriors allowed them to outscore the Spartans 23 to 14 in the frame to put the game away
The fourth quarter had the most offense of the game but the game was already well out of reach with both teams emptying their benches with about four minutes left to go with many players who usually don’t play getting a shot to play. Once the final buzzer sounded the Warriors completed their senior night with a 82-52 win.
Donnie Barfields talks about how much this “It means a lot to us. You know, we’ve been playing here for four years and it just shows that, you know, this program means a lot to us.” Barfield said, “We played hard and beat a team that we almost lost two at the beginning of the year, so I think we just play hard.”
Westside played well on both sides of the ball scoring more than their average while holding the Spartans to less than their average including forcing 11 turnovers. Westside had three scorers in double digits for points Preston had 12 going 4/5 from the field, Barfield Jr had 17 going 7/9 from the field, and Dada finished up his day with 27 points on 10/15 from the field including 4/5 from three. This was the second highest scoring this season from Dada with his most coming at 31 points against Lincoln East earlier this year.
For the Spartans they were led in points by Bryson Windhorst who had 11 on the day followed up closely by Reid Voog and Mick who had nine and eight points respectively. Defensively it was a tough showing with the Spartans allowing the Warriors to shoot 54% and score 82 points the most they have allowed this year, the previous highest total was 80 set again by Westside earlier this year. The Spartans will try to battle their way out of a hole in the A-2 district hosted by Bellevue West which is a very winnable game for Lincoln East
With the win Westside secured their spot in the A-1 district locking up a tournament spot even if they don’t win their district. Westside will either play Buena Vista or Omaha South on Saturday to punch their ticket to the district finals where they will either play Millard South or Benson for a shot at the state championship tournament.
Preston looks to finish his last year at Westside with a state championship, “We hopefully get that state trip.” Preston said, “But just gotta keep having good practices and keep playing well, and hopefully we can get it done.”
