It’s time for a rematch. The Bears will face off against the Vikings once again tonight after a 53-68 loss two weeks ago during the Jamboree. Same place: North High. Same time: 7:15 p.m.. Different day. Different mentality.
“That was our very first game,” senior center George Back said. “I feel like we’re going to be more prepared, more motivated. It’s going to look very different. Hopefully we’ll come out with the dub.”
Omaha North, who is currently 3-2, had more success in field goals made and more rebounds in that Dec. 3 game. This time around, head coach Galen Gullie has gone back to the drawing board and has had the team watch film so that they can understand what to do to beat North tonight.
“They [North] had a bit more experience,” Gullie said. “They made a bit more game winning plays than we did, but I feel like over the course of time we’re going to get there and get over that hump. When we’re mentally locked in on every possession, we can do some great things.”
Since their earlier match up, the boys have had more practice and experience playing games together. And while they haven’t won yet, they were competitive, coming within an average of 15 points of winning for each game.
“I feel like we’ve done some reevaluating and we realize we can be a good team,” junior point guard London Williams said. “We just have to be consistent on and off the court.”
They have been focusing on being “all in” on all aspects of the game.
“I tell them all the time that we can’t have lows,” Gullie said. “If we’re not competing and practicing to the best of our ability every single day, we’re going to be taking steps backwards and we always want to take steps forwards and always progress, mentally, physically, on the court and off the court.”
They have also been working on building team chemistry to have more success.
“I learned that it takes more than one person to win,” Lam Kuang said. “Everybody needs to play their role. We need more effort, more communication, we need to not get in our heads, just play hard and battle.”
Gullie knows these young men can accomplish this.
“Everybody on our roster has a key piece, a key role,” he said. “Every single person knows their role and every single person understands what they are capable of and everybody is good at certain types of stuff to help us bring this program forward.”
After tonight’s game, the boys will host Lincoln Northeast who is 4-0, tomorrow. The last time the Bears played them it was last year, and it was a back-and-forth game that ended in 79-85 loss. Lincoln Northeast will also be facing off against Lincoln High tonight while the Bears face North.