Starting the game, the Huskies put themselves in an unfamiliar position ending the first quarter 22-11, in favor of the Mustangs, with senior guard Christian Braun scoring all 11 points. Braun said the main reason for the deficit was his inefficient passing and inability to hold onto the ball.

“I didn’t pass the ball very well,” Braun said. “I started off with some quick turnovers, I tried to do too much myself. I did all right scoring but I could’ve done a better job passing.”

One big reason for being able to stay in the game while the team struggled was senior guard Jack Hungerford, who scored six of his eight points in the second quarter to narrow the deficit. Hungerford said he was playing off of the attention Braun was drawing with his own offense.

“Our game plan was just to move the ball and get it back to [Christian] and work off it,” Hungerford said. “Whenever he has the ball they’d collapse, so we just had to cut to the basket and I figured if they’re going to double team him, then I might as well drive when the lanes open.”

The Huskies were able to quickly get back on track as they cut the deficit to three points at halftime with the score being, 28-31. Fritz said the turning point of the game was midway through the second quarter.

“It probably happened with about four minutes to go in the first half, and it kind of carried over into the second half and I thought we did a really good job,” Fritz said. “I thought Mike Peake gave us really good minutes when he came off the bench at the end of the third quarter.”

Due to foul trouble concerns, senior forward, Mike Peake had been relatively quiet in the first half of the game by only scoring two points. That ended quickly however, as he threw down a one-handed dunk over two defenders to extend the lead to 45-40 with 2:06 minutes remaining in the third quarter. It was from that point on that BVNW set the tone for the rest of the game, never surrendering the lead.

With 55 seconds left to play and only up by three, Hungerford made a hustle play, diving onto the ground to keep the possession alive, then creating a look for a dunk from senior Matt Chapman, which gave the Huskies a two possession lead. The dunk would help to secure a 58-52 win over the Mustangs.

While the win will boost their confidence, Braun said they have to move on and keep getting better.

“It means a lot just from a confidence standpoint, but it’s just another win and we got to move on to the game tomorrow,” Braun said.

The win last night moved the Huskies to 5-0 on the season and 1-0 in Eastern Kansas League play. Blue Valley Northwest takes on Grandview high school Saturday Dec. 15 at Avila University. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.