On Tuesday, Feb. 6, the Millard West Wildcats took on the Westview Wolverines. Millard West came into the matchup 10-8, as well as Westview who came into the game 10-8. The two teams came into the game with the same record, with very similar strengths and weaknesses.
Junior Reece Carson leads the Wildcats with 13.1 points per game, while also averaging the most assists for the Wildcats with 2.3 assists per game. For the visiting team, Westview is led in points by Tayvin Murphy with 18.8 per game and John Sims leading the charge in passing with 2.6 assists per game. Millard West has a lot of seniority over Westview, with the Wildcats having six seniors and Wolverines having zero.
The first quarter of the game started very slow with both teams missing many shots. Senior Cooper Fortune got the scoring started for the Wildcats with an easy layup, which was followed by a few jumpers from other Wildcats. The Wolverines matched those buckets with made shots of their own to keep the game neck and neck through the first quarter. Tayvin Murphy finished the first quarter leading Westview in points with five points, while also maintaining a narrow 11-10 lead over the Wildcats.
“The first quarter we struggled to get things going on our shots, but we got a few shots to fall and have a very manageable deficit to overcome,” Fortune said. “We have to shut down their weapons, and can hopefully grab a commanding lead going into halftime.”
Millard West came out of the first period firing on all cylinders. They got a few defensive stops that led to easy points to get the lead in the early second quarter. Millard West’s main focus for the second quarter seemed to be defense, holding Westview to only seven points in the second quarter while also scoring 13 of their own to hold the halftime lead 23-18 with leading scorers of the half being Reece Carson for Millard West and Tayvin Murphy for Westview.
“Some of our shots started to fall in the second quarter which is always good to see before you go into the locker room for halftime,” senior Jordan Gassen said. “Coach made a few minor adjustments during halftime that we looked to execute on in the second half to hopefully grow our lead and ultimately get us the win.”
Once the halfway break concluded, both teams came out ready. The defense in the second half was looking good, and both teams managed to only get a few buckets to start the second half. With around 30 seconds left in the third quarter Westview got the ball on a breakout fastbreak, with only senior Tag Charmichael back on defense and two offensive players down the court for Westview, junior John Sims throws up a lob for Tayvin Murphy, and he finishes with a fanatic dunk over Charmichael. After the highlight play, Millard West held on to another narrow lead 33-30 going into the final period of the game. Westview scored very early in the fourth quarter, causing Millard West to call a very early timeout to sort things out. The lead was running slim for the Wildcats, and they came out of the timeout hot hitting shot after shot. Westview matched those shots to keep the game close and ultimately Reece Carson’s 15 points and Cooper Fortunes 14 were too much for the Wolverines. Millard West won the game 49-44, and improved to 11-8.
“ None of our shots were falling in the first quarter, so the coach made some adjustments and our shots started falling soon after,” Junior Reece Carson said. “Our defensive effort is what won us this game when our offense wasn’t looking good.”
The Wildcats are looking forward to district basketball to give themselves a chance to punch their ticket to state basketball to play in Lincoln for the first time in three years.
