The BVNW basketball program hit the road to play BVSW on the Timberwolves senior night. After a close game, the girls team fell to BVSW, 49-41. The boys team however managed to hold a steady 20 point lead for most of the game and defeated the Timberwolves with a final score of 81-53.

It was a game full last minute buzzer beaters at each quarter. Head girls basketball coach Brian Bubalo said to prepare for the game, the Huskies worked on their defense. They changed their defensive positions every trip down the court to give them an advantage against the offense. Bubalo also said the team worked on getting the ball into the lane.

“It really challenges them in ways that they don’t know what’s coming. We keep tricking them,” Senior Lauren Mertz said. “I think we out smarted them on defense pretty well.”

The Huskies started the game off strong finishing the first quarter with the lead. The score was Huskies 9-Timerwolves 3.

Mertz said she thought that the team played an impeccable first half with very good defense.

Bubalo said  because of too many turn overs, missed shots, and not enough offensive rebounds the girls lost their chance to build a lead in the first half.

By halftime, the Timberwolves began to fight for the win on their own territory with a 3 point shot to tied up the first half with a total of 15 points.

During the second half, Mertz said the team let things slip by letting them shoot threes and losing the lead they had gained in the first half.

The third quarter was full of many back and forth shots from each team. The teams tied the score once more with a total of 26 points.

“I think we played passive [during the second half]. I think we were kind of satisfied with how we played,” Mertz said.  “I think its really important that we remain unsatisfied for the remainder of the game. I think if we keep that hunger that it will be more productive for us.”

As the game winded down to the final minutes, BVSW took the lead and grabbed ahold of the win with the final score of 49-41. Over all Bubalo was pleased with how the game plan worked.

“[The Timberwolves] are a tough team to come back on because they are so quick. It was going to be hard but I was happy with the effort,” Bubalo said. “They did everything that we wanted them to do. They just missed some shots and made some mistakes that we have to improved. We’ve got to take care of the ball and get it into the basket.”

The boys team also started quickly and gained an early lead. The difference being, they kept the lead for the entirety of the game. BVSW was unable to score a single point in the first four minutes of the game, and the Huskies established an early 12-0 lead halfway through the first quarter. Head boys basketball coach Ed Fritz said he was pleased with how the game began.

“We shot the ball well towards the end of the second quarter and towards the beginning of the game,” Fritz said. “We did what we needed to do.”

BVNW played the entire game with a lead, the biggest of which being 28 points. The score was 20-9 at the end of the first quarter, 39-19 at halftime, 65-37 at the end of the third quarter and was concluded with a final score of 81-53. Fritz said with the way the team has played in their games thus far, he has high hopes and expectations for the rest of the season.

“We start the playoffs on Thursday so we need to get our defense a lot better but I’m really happy we won the EKL for the fourth straight year in a row,” Fritz said. “Hopefully we have five games left, and my goal is to win them all.”