By By Matthew Nascone
A first win is an essential part to every team's season. The Northview High School Chiefs boy's basketball team did not have to wait long for that win. They beat Flomaton High School 50-31 Monday in Flomaton.
"They all played well and I believe they played above their heads for the first game," NHS head coach Shane Reid said.
Reid said the game started out sloppy on both sides of the ball and the first points were not scored until well into the game. Reid said he is not worried about this.
"It was the first game and John Newhouse did a good job by scoring the first four points of the game for us," Reid said. "Those might have been his only points of the game, but he got us going."
The team playing better than expected made Reid a happy man after the game. He said he believed the win could be accredited to the tough play of his guys. He said the win was great for his team.
"It was an awesome feeling," he said. "The guys played better than I expected, because Flomaton might have been young, but they can shoot the ball."
The Chiefs only hit 39 percent of their shots, but Reid said he is not worried about the shooting percentage because that will get better as the year moves along.
"You can shoot 39 percent and play good defense, but we need to work on shooting and we will do that in practice," Reid said.
Senior Cedrick McKinley led the charge for NHS with 17 points, 18 rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots. Senior Courtney Whatley added eight points, four assists and three steals and senior Ahmad Simpson and sophomore Nakita Miles chipped in six points apiece.
He said he was worried about one thing.
"We got that first win and now we have to continue to work hard and not peak after that first win," Reid said. "They played hard on defense as well and I was proud of them for that."
In JV action the Chiefs fell to Flomaton 27-10. Reid said his team would be able to work through the loss.
"We are going to get there, but we are young on JV," he said.
The Chiefs take on Central High School tomorrow at 6 p.m.