Normal West’s season has not lived up to its expectations, and the record can prove that claim. However, this team is full of a bunch of young players, and is getting better every game.
Normal West beats down the Urbana Tigers, with a 53-22 victory on Senior Night, February 8th.
West jumped out fast on the offensive end, outsourcing their opponent 53-22 for the game. Seniors Olivia Patton and Meredith Bertsche combined for 25 points, and Freshman Kyle Wilson had 7 points.
Normal West now heads into the playoffs with a 9-18 record, after a rough start to the year.
Although Normal West had an up and down season in terms of record, Head Coach Dunn is proud of how far his team has come this season, especially as of late.
“We feel good going into the postseason. We have built some momentum the last few games,” he notes.
However, this momentum can shift, and the team has been repeatedly told by the coaching staff to be locked in for the playoffs.
“We can’t let that recent success impact our vibes too much . We have recently won three games in a row. But everyone is 0-0 in the postseason, and they’ll bring their best performance every night,” Coach Dunn replied this week.
“We need to be all in. We have to have max effort and take care of the basketball, and do the little things to succeed.”
This team is young.
It has a lot of inexperienced players, and the season’s successes and faults have all been a part of that. But, the team has grown up as the season progressed, especially with the freshman group.
“I feel our group of freshmen took big strides this year, and could be the core of the program in the future,” Coach Dunn emphasized. “Girls like Journey Johnson, and others have really stepped up, and have gotten much better.”
At the end of the day, no matter what happens in the postseason, this team has improved a lot this year.
The fact that this is a young team, makes it more impressive they have gotten to this point, and it could be the building block for great success in the future.
Go cheer on your Lady Cat’s as they take on their in-town rival Normal Community tonight, February 12 in Pekin in the regional round of the playoffs.
