The East High boys basketball team has surprised many through the first half of the season. Ranked fourth amongst Class A teams in Nebraska, the 9-3 Spartans have played in eight games decided by single digits, three of which have gone into overtime. “I think it’s good in the nature that we have a lot of inexperience on this team, and so every close game is giving them more experience,” said head coach Jeff Campbell. “It just keeps giving us more and more experience so that down the road hopefully close games pay off.” Over Christmas break, East kept their focus despite unpredictable weather during the HAC Tournament. “I think our guys did a pretty good job showing up for practice every morning, we didn’t miss a day,” stated Campbell.
The upcoming weekend for East may be their toughest test yet. East will face North Star on Friday and Lincoln High on Saturday. “We gotta make sure we take care of the ball better, we gotta make sure we rebound the basketball better than we have the last couple games,” declared Campbell. “They’re gonna be two fun games. Both those teams are really good and they’re two city games, and so that stuff adds to it which just makes it a fun environment.” East is currently fighting to keep a top seven district record in order to host more games in the district tournament. The Spartans will host the 7-6 Navigators at 7:30 pm Friday and the 9-5 Links at 7 pm Saturday.