The varsity basketball team faced a devastating loss this Tuesday night to their rivals Niles North, with a score of 77-64. The Wolves lost by more than 10 points causing fans, players, and coaches to be disappointed in their loss.

Head Coach Mike Wasielewski reflects on his plays for the boys,  “The game had an electric atmosphere and the student sections really made a great environment. Niles North shot the ball well to start the game and forced us to play catch-up the rest of the way. We cut their lead to 5 points in the 4th quarter, but couldn’t get any closer than that. We played really hard but we have to cut down on our turnovers that lead to easy shots for our opponents.” Wasielewski said.

Players felt that the pressure from fans was one of the main elements for the Wolves’ loss.

“We didn’t execute our plays very well. The atmosphere probably got to us. There were a lot of kids screaming at us in the student section. We started off pretty slow. We started down in halftime at like fifteen. We picked it up in the second half but it was too late,” junior Joseph Pantazis said.

On the other hand, some players believed that the fans from West were good support.

“I think that it was great that so many people showed up to support Niles West. I think that the fanbase is great and I believe we played a good game but there are definitely a lot of places we could improve on. As the season goes on it’ll get better and then we’ll be able to compete with this if we play them next year.” junior Vaughn Holleran said.

Aside from this an overwhelming amount of West Students showed up at North to show their support, North students proved their rivalry to be strong, with many chants and cheers being heard from the stands.

During the last five minutes of the game, the team began to score multiple points causing them to almost tie with North at the two-minute mark. Even though the Wolves pushed until the end the Vikings fought harder and were able to create a bigger divide in the final score.

Spectators had faith in the Wolves until North decided to pull another trick from their bag, “In the fourth quarter, it kind of seemed like we were going to get back in there. I think it was 64-58 and then I don’t know his number but he dunked on us and that kind of really switched the momentum. After that, they just went on a run and we couldn’t get back to it which was kinda disappointing but maybe next year,” senior Mia Cejovic said.

The team’s next game will be at home against Glenbrook South on Fri. Dec. 16th at 7:00 pm. Come down to show your support.