On January 13th, 2016, the West Anchorage High School Junior Varsity basketball team went head to head against Eagle River High school. The West boys beat Eagle River with a score of 63-32 with a margin of 31 points.

In the first half of the game West’s starting lineup scored a total of 12 points, while their bench scored 17. The success to their victory against Eagle River was their defense. Because of West’s excellent defense, Eagle River couldn’t complete much of their plays.

When asked what the West team’s strongest point was, they all agreed that it was their defense. “We were able to stop their plays, catch rebounds and score on the other end,” said their coach Mike Wyne. Eagle River was often stolen from or had a tight window to score against our team. Although their defensive end was on point, the West JV team could use more work on their offensive end. “Our offense was very stale. We didn’t run any offensive plays, we scored on our defensive end” said Wyne.

“I look forward into seeing how everyone improves each day. Everyday I wish one of my JV players move up to varsity,” Wyne said.

Sophomore, Izaiha King, scored a total of 12 points for West against Eagle River that night. “I plan on playing varsity to show my talents and play college basketball one day” said Izaiha. All of the players in this team are still improving and getting better each day. “Our defense was really well, but we could still work on our communication a little more,” said sophomore, TJ Prater.

“We practice very hard. The boys run over two miles a day before we even touch a basketball,” said Wyne. The team keeps in touch with each other and make sure no one misses practice.

“We have to maintain on our defense and work on our rebounding, lay ups, steals, and jump shots,” King added. The people who come to support the JV basketball games are one of the motivations to their victories. “My motivation to win is when my family comes. They come to support me and I want to win for them,” said Prater.

Despite this recent win, that doesn’t mean they can relax just yet. They still have many games to go through and more hardship to put into. This game does bring up the West JV basketball team’s morale, and it is another factor to their dream season.

The team still has to practice really hard and stay ahead of the game. The aWest JV basketball team has 18 more games to play, and each one of them being different and challenging. But no matter how difficult each game could get, the West JV team plans to win them all or at least do their best.