On Friday, Dec. 6, The Millard West Girls Varsity Basketball team opened the regular season with a top three matchup at home against the Millard North Mustangs.
The Wildcats came into the season expected to be the best in the state a year after winning the State Championship 58-55 to Bellevue West. The Wildcats also went undefeated in the state of Nebraska losing one game all year to the Johnston Dragons from the state of Iowa. The Mustangs finished their season last year with a 17-8 record. The Stangs would lose to the Cats in both matchups 61-43 and 63-51. The Wildcats come into this season ranked number one in the state where the Mustangs enter as the third best team.
“We have very high expectations this year,” head coach Marc Kruger said. ”As the #1 ranked team We want to go out and prove that we deserve that each and every day. We have three big pieces back from last year’s team but the three that played a lot of minutes who are not here were very big contributors. Last year all those kids and their games just fit perfectly together. Now we are trying to figure out combinations of playing time with some very talented but young and inexperienced kids.
Both teams came out of the gate slow with no one scoring for the first two minutes of play. The Cats would get on the board first with a “and one” opportunity for senior Neleigh Gessert. Half way through the first the Wildcats put themselves up 10-2. The first quarter would come to a close with only three points scored in that last four minutes of the period. Score after one- Millard West 10, Millard North 6.
“The Game started off slow for both sides of the ball but we knew that if we kept playing hard we would start to land more shots,” Neleigh Gessert said . ”I thought we played great defense all night but it just took some time for the offense to find their rhythm against a good Millard North team.”
After a slow first half of the second quarter the Cats started hitting multiple three pointers with Neleigh Gessert hitting three and getting fouled to get the four point play at the line. Millard North was still unable to produce any offense as they were only about to get eight points in the second period. Score after two- Millard West 26, Millard North 13. The third quarter would start with no points scored for the first four minutes. The streak was ended by the Mustangs and then went on a 8-1 run to go down 20-27 with just under three minutes left in the quarter. The rest of the period was all Cats as the Gessert twins and a few others found open lanes and shots to end the quarter with an 18 point lead. Score after three- Millard West 42, Millard North 24.
“We knew that Millard North was going to be a good team this year,” junior Kylee Paben said. ”The game plan was more focused on playing good defense knowing that at some point the points would come and start stacking up.”
Going into the final quarter, both offenses woke up and started scoring at will. Senior Norah Gessert would get herself a few steals taking away offensive opportunities for the Mustangs early in the quarter. After the Cats were able to get back to back threes from Neleigh Gessert, the Wildcats would put the back ups in to finish the final minutes. Score after four- Millard West 61, Millard North 37.
The Wildcats started the season off with a big win against the third ranked team in the state at home. The Cats hope to carry the momentum from last year to this season to push for a back to back title for the first time in school history.
