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Mitri Krishna

Senior Markell Hood goes up for a layup in the game against Blue Valley West. BVNW defeated BVW, 58-45.

Coming off a meager showing offensively in the first three quarters and only leading by five at the start of the fourth, juniors Jack Chapman and Alston Mason each knocked down a pair of threes to extend the lead to double digits, effectively putting the game out of reach. Refusing to tolerate his quiet night any longer, Chapman said the fourth quarter was an opportune time to get something going and put the game to bed. 

“We knew we had to step up,” Chapman said. “Players found us and gave us good shots and we hit them. I think that was one of those moments that was a game changer and I think Alston played really well.”

The Huskies would go on to score 22 points in the fourth quarter. Fritz said, in spite of the positive end to the game, that it was a combination of the Jaguar’s play and insufficient ball movement which kept BVNW at bay for the first 24 minutes. 

“We weren’t very connected on defense tonight, we need to do a better job of that,” Fritz said. “We did a really bad job of passing the ball, keeping it too long. West did some really good things, but for us to win by 13, that is pretty good.”

Responsible for keeping the Huskies’ noses in front of the Jaguars during the dry spell, senior Markell Hood contributed 16 points to the 27-point first half. Hood was happy with his performance to open the game and said it enabled his teammates to dictate the run of play in the fourth quarter. 

“I just brought the energy and we stayed around in the game, getting my other guys going in the second half,” Hood said.

As the only remaining undefeated team in the Eastern Kansas League, both Fritz and Chapman said the focus for the last few league games of the season is to stay perfect and capture the league title. 

“We’re in first place, the only team undefeated,” Fritz said. “We need to keep winning. If we can win the rest of our games, we will win the championship. We’ve won 13 games in a row, which is pretty good, so we’re gonna keep working on that.”

“The goal is to win every game. We want the EKL title,” Chapman said. “We have some tough opponents coming up and we just have to prepare for them and hopefully win them all and not lose again.”