On Friday, Feb. 13, the boys freshman basketball team rematched BVW.Last time the two teams played, SW lost by one point. A tough loss for the team.

The first game started out with West taking the lead very quickly. After the first quarter, they were up by 9 points. Eventually Southwest had caught up and by the end of the third quarter they were tied up. Even though Southwest had missed six free throws. At the end of the game Southwest had the chance for one last shot, but missed. The final score being 40-39.

 “You know I really thought that first game was ours, the thing is we missed six of our free throws,”freshman head coach Antonio Bostic said. “I’ve been telling these guys that free throws make or break a game, but I guess it took a devastating loss to prove my point.”

 “I agree with what coach tells us about free throws,” freshman starter Alec Augustine said before the rematch. “for the past month I’ve been staying after practice a bit longer just shooting free throws, hopefully it will pay off.”

 The first game Southwest also had the home court advantage. Friends and family cheered on the team in the aux gym. Making it louder and to the players, a little more exciting.

 “Although it sounds silly, having fans really pumps you up and makes you do better, even though we literally have like four of them,” freshman Cameron Fasenmyer said. “Some people think it may make you mess up more, but for me at least it really does make me play a lot better.”

 At the beginning, the game started out neck and neck for the two teams. When the first quarter ended, southwest was only down one point at 12-11.

 The overall outcome of the game seemed to be going fairly well during halftime as well. The score was tied at 20-20. Starting the third quarter, West freshman Griffen Harvey knocked down seven 3s in a row. This widened the margin to 18 points in only four minutes.

 “It wasn’t just the points that they were scoring that really set us apart, they got at least four stops in a row on defense,” Augustine said.

 Things weren’t looking too great for Southwest during the fourth quarter either. West had kept their lead at 22 points, and the game was coming to an end. The score just kept bouncing back between a lead of 22 points to a lead of 20. Even the fans had started to dial down.

 With three minutes remaining. Southwest got a steal and the ball was passed to Hayden Hitchcock for a fast break. Everyone was expecting a nice and easy layup, but no. That day Hitchcock became the first Southwest freshman in the class of 2018 to ever dunk in a game.

“We were down so much, I really didn’t even care what was going to happen if I missed it or not. There was no coming back, but I thought may as well try something cool.” Hitchcock

 West ended up beating Southwest 54-35.

“We fought hard, until the third quarter. This time, free throws weren’t our problem, but playing smart defense was where we struggled.” Bostic said.