By By Matthew Nascone
The Northview Chiefs boy's basketball team squeaked out a 69-66 victory against Jay on senior night Jan. 30. The Chiefs almost blew an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter, NHS head coach Shane Reid said.
"I emptied the bench a little too early," Reid said. "But we did end up scoring 26 points in the fourth quarter to seal the deal."
NHS had a good night shooting the ball as they shot 48 percent as a team and Reid said that was the reason for the 69 points.
Jay knocked down 12 three-point baskets as they were on fire from outside the arc.
"We couldn't hold a lead," Reid said. "They played about as good as I could ask offensively."
The Chiefs also beat Jay twice in one season for the first time in a long time as Reid said he could not find anyone around school who remembered the last time that happened.
Nakita Myles led the charge for NHS with 18 points. Cedric McKinley added 17 points, Jordan Cook and Courtney Whatley poured in nine points, Ahmadh Simpson contributed eight points, DeAngelo Kirkland added four points and Josh Donaldson and Brady Levins added two points each.
"If we play offensively like we did last night against Catholic I think we will have a good shot to win the game," Reid said. "We just have to stay hot because we got hot at the right time."
The Chiefs hosted Central Jan. 31 and grabbed their 12th win on the year with a 61-55 victory. NHS had a game plan to stop Central's Keith German from beating them and Reid said they succeeded.
"Our whole game plan was to shut German and Logan Campbell down and we did just that," he said.
German only scored 30 points. Some may say this is a lot, but he had dropped 63 on one team earlier in the season.
"We made German beat us and we got him frustrated with two early charges on defense," Reid said. "Another key to the game was our steals and fast breaks. We adjusted at the half and switched to a zone from man coverage which forced their guards to turn the ball over a lot."
Myles led the Chiefs again with 24 points, McKinley dropped in 21 points, Whatley added six points, Kirkland added four points and Cook, Simpson and Tarrance Wright contributed two points each.
The No. 3 seed Chiefs will play No. 2 seed Catholic Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. at Walton High School.
"We have a tough road ahead of us, but it is not unrealistic," Reid said. "If we can beat Catholic then we are in the state tournament and that is something to be proud of in the year following a 6-18 season."