In a game that featured countless lead changes, Blue Valley West ultimately had the upper hand as they defeated the Huskies, 73-70, in overtime.

Northwest got off to a strong start as they built an 18-11 lead by the end of the first quarter.

“We were making shots and playing well together,” junior guard Grant Stubblefield said. “We also had some good defensive stops that helped us get the lead.”

Head coach Aaron Ihm said the team played well in the first quarter, but laid back a little in the second quarter as the Jaguars shortened the Huskies’ lead to 28-27 at halftime.

“I thought we came out in a pretty good mindset. We moved the ball well and a couple of our posts did a little more offensively than they typically do,” Ihm said. “We also gave up a few too many points, especially in that second quarter. We fell short of some things we had scouted and worked on with them. We let one of their shooters get too comfortable from the three point line and we had a weird technical foul after a block which changed some momentum.”

The Huskies came out of halftime flat, according to Stubblefield, as the Jaguars took a six-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

“We were trying to take too early of shots and we didn’t get back on defense. They also outrebounded us pretty bad,” Stubblefield said.

Ihm added on to Stubblefield, saying some of the Huskies’ better shooters had an off night and multiple players were in foul trouble, which proved to be costly in the third quarter.

“We got in foul trouble and we had a couple of guys that are usually really good shooters have off nights. We don’t ever want to have an excuse for guys that have off nights and we had other guys that went in, battled, and brought us back,” Ihm said.

As the Huskies came back from a five-point deficit with 5:00 remaining in the game to force overtime, Ihm said the team played well despite relying on multiple non-starters to be in the game.

“We were forced to test the depth of our bench as we played the fourth quarter and overtime with two sophomores in and they fought hard and kept it close,” Ihm said. “They all believe in themselves and we were able to settle in there and tie the game back up. Grant did a great job getting to the hole and we changed some of our defenders out there which got West under control too.” Ihm said.

In overtime, Ihm said the team started to become tired and West kept playing well as the Huskies fell short of the win, with a final score of 70-73.

“We had a couple loose balls there at the end that I was hoping we’d get, but we weren’t able to. The five that we stayed with started getting gassed, but credit to West. They had some great opportunities and even though they weren’t able to finish it out in regulation, they made some winning plays in overtime,” Ihm said.

Despite finishing the game with 34 points, Stubblefield said he wasn’t satisfied with the outcome of the game.

“I feel like I played ok, but at the end of the day I’m not happy when we don’t get a win,” Stubblefield said.