In BVNW and BVN’s first matchup of the season, BVNW fell short and was defeated by Blue Valley North 43-56 on BVN’s home court. After BVN hit a total of eight three-point shots, BVNW could not come back and win the game.

“That hurt us,” head coach Ed Fritz said. “We didn’t guard the three-point shot, and they hit more than they usually do.”

In the first quarter, BVN won the tipoff, sending their crowd into a frenzy. However, it was BVNW who made the first two points of the game. BVN followed shortly after, and the two teams battled back and forth, but BVNW managed to maintain the lead until the end of the first quarter, where the score ended with BVNW leading 11-10.

“The game plan was not to turn the ball over, and we did a good job of that,” Fritz said. “We wanted to get the ball inside, we did a pretty good job of that early in the game.”

In the second quarter, BVN made four of their eight three-point shots, and they took the lead with 3:17 left in the quarter. Senior Dalton Schoen, the leading scorer out of both teams with 17 points, put five points on the board for BVNW in the second quarter, and freshman Joe Pleasant, sophomore Tristen Hull and senior James Atwood also contributed, making the score at the end of the second quarter 23-26 with BVN in the lead.

“I think we hung together; we hung tight,” Fritz said. “We took good shots and we didn’t turn it over.”

In the third quarter, BVN made two more threes, and they lengthened the lead they had on BVNW. Schoen had five more points in the third quarter, but BVN continued to score, and by the end of the second quarter, BVN was in the lead 35-41.

“We have to improve on just mental mistakes; we’ve got to get better at it,” Fritz said. “We made too many mental mistakes in crucial times.”

In the fourth quarter, BVNW had six fouls, and the team could not quite get a hold on BVN, who increased their lead to 13 by the end of the quarter. Toward the end of the quarter, Fritz put in junior Michael Dennis and junior varsity player Joey Chapman, who both scored two points. However, this was not enough to stop BVN, and the final score of the game was 43-56.

“It thought we came out prepared and ready to play,” Fritz said. “We had a good game plan and we executed it. It just kind of got away from us late in the third quarter, early in the fourth quarter. But overall, I’m pleased with some things we’re doing; we’re improving. We’ve got some guys who are getting great experience; they’re just really young.”

For Schoen, it was difficult to lose to BVN because BVNW has defeated BVN multiple times in the last few years, including the state basketball championship game last year where BVNW beat BVN by 27 points.

“It hurts just because it’s such a big rivalry because we’ve had success the past few years, so it definitely hurts losing to a rival on their home court,” Schoen said.

Despite the loss, Fritz said he thinks they made BVN work for their win, and he looks forward to the next home game that is against BVN.

“We were successful in our game plan and executing what we needed to do, so I think we took a step tonight, but we need to get better,” Fritz said.