It's been as good as we could have hoped for. These guys look like they've played together.

The last time we played them they were just so good. It?s probably the best anybody?s played against us in a long time. They executed and hit shots. It was on our court, too, so it?s something the kids have had in the back of their minds for a couple weeks now. They prepared very well for it. It was key to get off to a good start and get their confidence back.

You can't play the way we played against a team like East Catholic. There are no surprises when we play each other. They just played better than we did.

It came down to making some defensive stops and executing on offense.

The conference will be very competitive. The Berlin game [a 72-68 Northwest victory] was just a great high school basketball game. There is still a lot of basketball to be played.