A sloppy effort from West Forsyth (7-9, 3-3) resulted in a tough 56-44 region loss to Alpharetta (7-10, 3-4) on Tuesday, as the Wolverines were unable to win on back-to-back nights after defeating North Paulding on Monday. This defeat pushed West’s home record to 2-4, a stark contrast to its 5-2 mark on the road.“It’s a tough loss,” said senior Nick Staiti, “but we played hard and kept going.” Even though this was the fourth game in five days for West, head coach Jim Cook doesn’t think fatigue was a factor in his team’s subpar performance. Rather, it was poor execution from the free throw line and an abundance of turnovers—many of which Alpharetta converted into baskets. In total, West turned the ball over 24 times and made just four of 16 foul shots.“I think to a certain extent, we can’t take the next step until we realize the basketball is the most important thing,” said Cook. Having that many turnovers in one game especially against a good team—that’s going to be the result.“I don’t think it was the effort, I don’t think it was the unselfishness. It’s the understanding that we have to take care of the basketball.” Nick Staiti had an impressive game, hitting five threes en route to 23 points—a game-high. His contributions accounted for 52.2 percent of West’s offense which was fairly inefficient throughout most of the contest. “Nick is playing extremely well,” said Cook. “He’s taking the shots we need him to take. Guys are looking for him out there, making that extra pass.”“My teammates helped a lot by getting the ball to me,” Staiti said. Nick’s cousin Jimmy Staiti had a strong second half, scoring nine points in the final 16 minutes of action. The first half ended with the game tied 18-18, but things quickly went south after the third quarter commenced. While Alpharetta was able to control the tempo and take advantage of West’s mistakes, the Wolverines slowly crumbled—finding themselves down by double digits when“I called two timeouts there in a stretch and [Alpharetta] rattled off eight points because we turned the ball over and they scored layups,” said Cook. “That’s the difference in the game when we have to fight at the end.” West will now take some well-deserved time off and rest up before playing at Centennial on Friday.
A sloppy effort from West Forsyth (7-9, 3-3) resulted in a tough 56-44 region loss to Alpharetta (7-10, 3-4) on Tuesday, as the Wolverines were unable to win on back-to-back nights after defeating North Paulding on Monday. This defeat pushed West’s home record to 2-4, a stark contrast to its 5-2 mark on the road.“It’s a tough loss,” said senior Nick Staiti, “but we played hard and kept going.” Even though this was the fourth game in five days for West, head coach Jim Cook doesn’t think fatigue was a factor in his team’s subpar performance. Rather, it was poor execution from the free throw line and an abundance of turnovers—many of which Alpharetta converted into baskets. In total, West turned the ball over 24 times and made just four of 16 foul shots.“I think to a certain extent, we can’t take the next step until we realize the basketball is the most important thing,” said Cook. Having that many turnovers in one game especially against a good team—that’s going to be the result.“I don’t think it was the effort, I don’t think it was the unselfishness. It’s the understanding that we have to take care of the basketball.” Nick Staiti had an impressive game, hitting five threes en route to 23 points—a game-high. His contributions accounted for 52.2 percent of West’s offense which was fairly inefficient throughout most of the contest. “Nick is playing extremely well,” said Cook. “He’s taking the shots we need him to take. Guys are looking for him out there, making that extra pass.”“My teammates helped a lot by getting the ball to me,” Staiti said. Nick’s cousin Jimmy Staiti had a strong second half, scoring nine points in the final 16 minutes of action. The first half ended with the game tied 18-18, but things quickly went south after the third quarter commenced. While Alpharetta was able to control the tempo and take advantage of West’s mistakes, the Wolverines slowly crumbled—finding themselves down by double digits when“I called two timeouts there in a stretch and [Alpharetta] rattled off eight points because we turned the ball over and they scored layups,” said Cook. “That’s the difference in the game when we have to fight at the end.” West will now take some well-deserved time off and rest up before playing at Centennial on Friday.