After a heartbreaking loss last year to Lincoln Southwest in the district finals, Westside reconquered the mountain and took down Millard South to win the A-1 district championship. Westside got to finally cut down their nets after taking a tough loss in last year’s A-3 district championship to the Silverhawks, managing to sneak into last year’s state championship tournament by the thinnest of margins through the wildcard, battling their way to the finals, where they lost to Papillion South by three.
The game started red hot with both offenses hitting shot after shot, with six lead changes alone happening in the first quarter. Koby and Brevin Meyers put up most of the points for the Patriots in the first quarter, with London Dada putting up nearly 10 points in the first quarter alone. The Warriors led after the first 20-19. The second quarter was all Westside, going on a 9-2 run to get to a 29-21 lead within the first three minutes of the quarter. Millard South then went on a big run of their own, including another five from Koby Meyers, to regain the lead 31-29 with three minutes in the second. Westside went into the break up 40-38 after another offensive explosion by both teams.
The third quarter kept the trend going of a back-and-forth game with no team getting out to a larger lead than five. Emre Gedik and Donnie Barfield led the way in the third, both offensively and defensively, capped off by a big Gedik three before the quarter ended. Carter Margheim was keeping the Patriots in the game with some big rebounds, and Brevin Meyers hit a three near the buzzer to cut the lead to two going into the fourth. Millard South recaptured the lead early in the fourth when Tony Broussard took a steal to the other end to go up 60-59, The Warriors quickly recaptured the lead on the next possession when Gedik his second three of the game and Westside didn’t look back holding the lead for the rest of the game while staving off Millard South comeback attempts and hitting clutch time free throws to ice the game winning 75-68.
Dada was enthusiastic about the win after coming up short last year. “It feels great. I mean, we set it as a goal at the beginning of the year,” Dada said, ” to do this, and we got it done. It feels great.”
Westside had a beautiful game in all aspects. Dada led the pack with 29 points while shooting 52% from the field, along with 13 rebounds in a double-double performance for the Warriors. Gedik and Barfield weren’t far behind with 19 and 18 points respectively, most of them coming in the second half. The most shocking stat for Westside was from three, as they shot 4/17 from beyond the arc.
Dada was still pleased with the performance of his teammates. “I mean, we all trust each other to make the right play.” Dada said, “I mean, Emre didn’t have a great first half, so I stepped up. I stepped up. I didn’t have a great second half. So, I mean, Donnie stepped up too. So it was a great game for all of us.”
The Patriots played a solid game offensively as well, with four players with double-figure points. Both Brevin and Koby Meyers had 20 points each, Margheim had 13 points and nine rebounds, and Journey Gerlach also had 11. Millard South’s season ends there, finishing with a final record of 14-11 with three of those losses coming against the Warriors.
Westside, with the win, clinched the number one seed in the state tournament, looking to win its second championship in school history. Their first round opponent is the Lincoln High Links, historically one of the best teams, leading the state in state championship finals appearances, but who upset their way into the tournament, beating Creighton Prep in the bird cage to punch their ticket back to the state championship tournament for the first time since 2010. Westside looks to take care of business against the Links, and if they win, they would play the winner of Lincoln Southwest and Millard North, who both were ranked number one at one point throughout the season, so it is anyone’s tournament once March comes around.
