By McClain Baxley

For the Forsyth County News

Coming off two losses over the weekend, West Forsyth wanted to focus and play a complete game at home against North Forsyth.

The first half of Tuesday's game showed that — junior Brock Bidwell had three 3-pointers in the first quarter, senior Joseph Staiti had multiple rebounds to go with his 15 first-half points and the Wolverines shut down a North team that just couldn’t catch a break.

“Impressive first half,” West head coach Fredrick Hurt said. “We set a school record for most points in a half and then, sadly, very similar to our last game, we got too focused on scoring that we quit doing the other stuff.”

In Saturday’s loss to Sequoyah, the Wolverines watched a double-digit lead dissipate. Hurt preached in Monday’s practice that West needed to compete the full 32 minutes.

“It’s hard for a high school team to maintain what you did at the beginning, but good teams do it,” Hurt said. “That’s what we’re trying to become is a good team.”

For North, the second half was a sign of growth and not backing down.

The Raiders shut down Bidwell and the Zabatakis brothers in the second half and converted on West’s fouls. Better ball movement on offense also played a great part in North “winning” the second half.

“A lot of times, I don’t think guys buy into it until they actually get into it on the court, but sometimes it's too late by then. I thought we came out in the second half and played much better,” North head coach David Sokol said. “We’re trying to change some things and that was good that they bought into it and hopefully we build from it.”