The varsity boys’ basketball team has played six games this season. They have a solid record of 4-2, not including tournament games. The team has picked up big wins against teams like Anderson and Brentwood Christian and lost against Leander and Buda Johnson. The season is just getting started, but the team looks like they are set for a deep playoff run.

The team is senior-led, with guys like Gabe Parr ‘23 and Henry Chuo ‘23 setting the standard for the rest of the team. These two players have been three-year varsity players for Westwood, so they know the ins and outs of this program. Coach Brad Hastings is in his 21st year of coaching. He is hoping he can finally reach a district title this year. 

The year started off with a hard away game loss against Buda Johnson. The team was anticipating this game and knew they were in for a challenge. The game was close the whole way through, but Buda Johnson ended up on top with 62-55. 

“I think we did pretty well for our first game of the year,” Thomas Burke ‘25 said. “We could’ve run our sets better and played better defense. Overall, we did a good job. As a team, we’re gonna grow defensively.”

The team bounced back with two wins against Cedar Park and Brentwood Christian. The Cedar Park game was nothing less than a blowout. Westwood destroyed them, 50-22. However, the game against Brentwood Christian didn’t go quite as smoothly. The Warriors eventually got the win, but it was no easy feat. The team faced a towering team, so the Warriors countered them by running the fastbreak.

“The game was a great bounce back from our loss versus Johnson,” Chuo said. “We played good team ball and that allowed us to blow them out as we’re supposed to.”

After that game, the team headed down to Leander, where they aimed to win another. They couldn’t quite accomplish their goal, and they fell to 3-2 on the season after another loss to an underwhelming Leander team. But after this loss, the team felt inspired to get redemption. The game against Anderson was highly anticipated by both sides. The game was a battle to the end, but the Warriors found a way to hit free throws down the stretch and secure the game.

“I felt like [during] the game, we came out confident and wanted to focus on executing our plays,” Parr said. “Henry helped us play fast and organize our plays so that we could execute.”

The Warriors will play their next home game against Glenn on Tuesday, Dec. 6.