The Blue Valley Northwest boys varsity basketball team picked up their first win of the 2018-19 season against Blue Springs, 70-40. Senior guard Christian Braun played a crucial role in giving the Huskies an early lead against the Wildcats. In the opening minutes of the game, BVNW went on an 11-0 run, with Braun scoring all 11 points. Braun said he was just looking to be aggressive.

“I just wanted to be aggressive,” Braun said. “We have a lot of guys that haven’t played a lot, so we had to get the jitters out for everybody.”

Braun was able to keep his momentum going however as with 5:44 remaining in the second quarter, he stole the ball from a Blue Springs player and scored off of a fast break layup, which would give the Huskies a 28-13 lead. Head coach Ed Fritz said Braun has been waiting to play all summer.

“He’s been waiting to play for a long time,” Fritz said. “He had a great summer, there was a lot of anticipation for him playing and he was ready to play.”

With four new starters playing, Fritz said he felt like his team had good chemistry.

“We had a few times where we gelled,” Fritz said. “Late in the second quarter, I thought we had a nice little run.”

The Chapman brothers are a big reason for the chemistry being so good, so early in the season according to sophomore Jack Chapman who finished with 18 points and senior Matt Chapman finished with a career high 11 points. Matt said playing with Jack was something really special.

“It’s pretty cool,” Matt said. “We’ve both been dreaming about it our whole lives. It’s really special and we’ve been going to the games since we were kids.”

With 1:11 left in the second quarter, Jack sparked an 8-0 run to end the first half with a fast break dunk. Braun scored 24 of his 29 points in the first half to lead the Huskies to a 41-20 lead over the Wildcats.

Coming into the game being the highest ranked team in the state according to 810 Varsity, Fritz said the rank comes with great responsibility. 

“A lot of responsibility comes with it,” Fritz said. “I’m not sure some of the guys know we’re going to be everybody’s big game on their schedule, so if we don’t match their intensity and execution, we can get beat any night.”