On December 8 and 9, the Millard West boys varsity basketball team was set to take on the Bellevue East Chieftains and Fremont Tigers on back to back days.
Millard West came into the double header 1-1 on the season, with a griddy road win over the Columbus Discoverers, and then falling to a top 10 ranked Papillion LaVista-South team, 69-56.
Bellevue East had yet to win a game at 0-3, losing by a combined score of 181-125 to Norfolk, Lincoln Southeast and Columbus. Fremont came in winless as well, by a combined score of 195-162, with losses to Papillion La-Vista, Lincoln High and Lincoln Northeast.
This first quarter was all Millard West, as they went up 12-7 after the first 12 minutes. The Wildcats also started off the scoring, and would never lose control of the lead though the first half.
“We liked how we matched up against them (Bellevue East),” senior guard Max Froloff said. “We knew we couldn’t sleep on them, but we did not overcomplicate things, played to our strengths in passing and taking good shots, and it was a good way to start our home opener.”
The second quarter saw much of the same from both teams, as Millard West had control going into the half, and were up 31-14. However, the Wildcats came out weak in the third quarter, and allowed Bellevue East to claw back. At one point, the Cats had a 25 plus point lead, but it slowly whittled away but the Wildcats still outscored the Chieftains 16-13 to be up 47-27.
But there was still one more quarter left, and Bellevue East was ready to pounce, if given the chance. The lead was cut down to just 6 with a few minutes left, and with a back and forth game with neither team able to hit any shots, the Wildcats would withstand the 23 point quarter from the Chieftains to win 58-50.
Eight Wildcats recorded points, with junior guard Reece Carson leading the team with 15, and senior guard Jordan Gassen having 14.
But there wasn’t much time to celebrate, as less than 24 hours later, West hosted Fremont on Saturday. This was once again another tough matchup, as Fremont was a gritty team, searching for their first win.
“Those back to back games are always tough,” senior forward Cooper Fortune said. “We still got a lot more games left in the season. Jobs not finished, and we gotta keep pushing.”
The first quarter was back and forth with high action, as West was up 20-17 after the end of one. Then, following a dead locked second quarter where both teams scored 12, the Wildcats held onto their three point lead and were up 32-29 at half.
“We played two completely different teams in their style of play,” senior guard Jace Ingebretson said. “We had to play to our strengths, but also make sure our defense shut down any source of offense they had. It worked well against Bellevue East, but was a bit more difficult against Fremont.”
The offense, seen as one of the weaknesses of the Wildcat team, found life in the third, once again erupting for 20 points again, and held the Tigers to just 14, making the score after the third quarter 52-43. Millard West rode the momentum in the fourth, dropping 18 more points and held Fremont to just eight, with a final score being 70-51.
Millard West goes to 2-2 on the season, following an impressive home stand.
