Murray, NEB- The junior varsity and varsity, boys and girls, basketball teams played their first official games of the season last Thursday against Louisville. Louisville is one of Conestoga’s many rivals. The Cougars have worked extremely hard in the offseason preparing for the games to come.

The girls junior varsity played at 4:30. The team found out that they would only be able to play 2 quarters due to the opposing team having a low number of players only less than 4 days before the game. They were warming up 40 minutes before the game could start. They were definitely warm when the game started. The girls were pumped for the game and they played to their highest intensity.

The boys JV team played at 4:30 also. They played all 4 quarters like a regular game. The boys played their hardest and had some juniors come down from varsity to help them on both offense and defense. They did not pull out the win.

The girls varsity team then had their chance for the spotlight. The team has recently got rip-off pants for warm-ups and they were very excited to show them off. They ran on to the court and started warm ups at around 6. The girls were ahead going into halftime, and used that momentum to transition into the thirst quarter of the game. That moment took them far in the third quarter, but they started to lose it when the Louisville team shot and made three three pointers in 2 minutes. They were then neck and neck, but the Cougars pulled out the win by two points. Upsetting Louisville after not winning against them in over three years.

The boys varsity team took the floor. Head Coach, Jason Ahrens, was quiet until halfway through the first quarter. The game was very physical and sweaty. There was a delay of the game more than 5 times due to sweat on the floor and medical injuries. The Cougars were neck and neck with the Lions going into halftime. The score was very close for the rest of the game and the Cougars ended up upsetting Louisville with a win.