12/8 Boys Basketball vs. Greenfield
New Berlin West got their first win against the Greenfield Hawks with a final score of 68-59. West didn’t start the best as they had 28 first-half points and were trailing 30-28 going into halftime. However, the second half was much better as West held Greenfield to multiple extended scoring droughts, and were up double digits for most of the second half. The game ended ugly for West regardless of the win. A player on West was ejected and later suspended for the next game due to a double technical foul with just 1.9 seconds left in the game. Overall, West can be happy with their first win, but they’ll need to improve their sportsmanship in future games.
12/8 Girls Basketball vs. Greenfield
On Tuesday, December 8, the New Berlin West Girls Basketball team went against Greenfield High School in a game that was exciting from start to finish. It was a foul-heavy game, racking up over 25 fouls in the whole game between the two teams.
West’s top post player, Meghan Schultz, looked unstoppable to start the game. Her performance down low helped propel the entire West offense forward to the point where Greenfield couldn’t do much to stop them.
Not only was their offense on point in the first half, but their defense was also incredible. It was clear to see that the Greenfield offense was having trouble making plays against West’s defense since New Berlin West was up by a good margin throughout the first half. At halftime, West held a solid 33-21 lead.
Another great point of the offense was capitalizing on fouls and free throws, and West was able to do this in both halves very effectively.
In the beginning of the second half, however, Greenfield was able to figure out a rhythm on offense, but their defense was still lagging .This allowed West to stay ahead for most of the game. Even though Greenfield’s offense started to turn it on in the second half, West was able to maintain great shooting from the outside, as well as attacking the paint and getting easy layups.
Throughout the second half, turnovers hurt both teams, but West was able to capitalize on the mistakes much more effectively than Greenfield did. This allowed West to maintain their strong lead throughout the game.
Overall, New Berlin West was dominant over Greenfield that day, winning 66-46. They showed that they’re a team that can dominate the conference this year. Some of the key contributors to this win were Kayla Garny with 11 points, Ella Kern with 14 points, and Meghan Schultz with an impressive 22 points for the Vikings.
With these contributions, it’ll be interesting to see how well they will do in future matchups. They will face Greenfield once again on Friday, and then will look forward to next week when they get back into conference action against West Allis Central.
12/9 Boys Basketball @ St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy
Last Wednesday, West lost their first non-conference matchup of the season against St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy by a score of 74-71. The ending was heartbreaking, as St John’s Senior guard Brandin Podziemski, a Division 1-caliber player, hit a contested 40 footer at the buzzer to win the game.
Before this ending though, West played some of their best basketball of the season. Going into the matchup, West was the clear underdog, as St John’s entered the season as one of the top 5 teams in Division 3. However, West played them very well and kept it close the whole way. In fact, West had the lead for the majority of the first half.
Going forward, West can be happy with their performance despite the loss, and they’ll try to keep their heads high as they look forward to their next matchup against Greenfield, who they beat earlier in the week.
12/11: Boys Basketball vs. Greenfield
New Berlin West won a close game against Greenfield last Friday following a tough loss Wednesday night. For the duration of the game, West was leading by double digits for the majority of the first half due to the impressive offensive output. West ended with 41 first half points which was more than they scored against Pewaukee in a whole game earlier in the year. However, the second half was much more intense. Greenfield led a couple of strong runs caused by sloppy West turnovers and quickly closed the gap to less than five points. The game stalled while West held a 4-8 point lead for the most of the half until the final 3 minutes, when Greenfield forced a couple of late turnovers and shifted the game into a free throw battle. West eventually won the free throw battle and closed out the game by a score of 62-60.
12/11 Girls Basketball vs. Greenfield
After beating Greenfield handily on Tuesday, New Berlin West Lady Vikings rematched Friday and had a dominant performance, doubling Greenfield’s score 71-35. Elena Barnes led the way in scoring with 16 points, but four other players had double digit points showing a strong collective effort. The Lady Viking’s defense was very impressive holding Greenfield to 25% shooting which is astonishingly low. West improved their record to 5-2, and will look forward to next week’s game against West Allis Central.
12/15: Boys Basketball vs. West Allis Central
On Tuesday, New Berlin West lost another conference game in their first matchup of the season against West Allis Central, dropping their conference record to 0-3 and overall record to 2-4. After coming off a solid win against Greendale, West had strong momentum going into the game against a much tougher opponent. The game was extremely close the whole way, but West ultimately lost by a final score of 71-67.
From the start, West knew they had to lock up Central’s best player, Najashi Tolefree, who entered the game averaging 17 points per game. Fortunately for West, Central has been without another one of their star players in Greyson Pritzl, brother of current Wisconsin Badgers basketball player Brevin Pritzl. Greyson got injured earlier this season and will be out for both matchups against West.
Central struggled to score and West pulled ahead to a double-digit lead. West looked like the much better team for the majority of the first half. However, with just three minutes left in the half, and West having a 29-18 lead, Central went on a monster run where they forced consecutive turnovers leading to easy buckets on offense. In the blink of an eye, West’s lead was gone, and Central ended up with the lead at the half 35-32.
In the second half, West responded to Central’s run, and retook the lead. They held the lead for most of the half, but Central kept it very close. Until the final three minutes of the game, West held a small lead, until another run from Central gave them the lead once again. In a very even second half, Central once again went on a run down the stretch, and they were able to hold on and win 71-67.
Despite the loss for West, it was an extremely competitive and even matchup. Anything can happen this Friday when they face off with Central again, so we’ll see if West can bounce back and get their first conference win of the season.
