From staff reports

The Niles freshmen and JV boys’ basketball team both improved to 2-0 Thursday night with a sweep of host Mattawan.

The Vikings defeated the Wildcat freshmen squad 47-36, while the Nile JV pounded Mattawan 70-40.

Freshmen basketball

Niles used a balanced scoring attack to defeat the Wildcats.

Tate Brawley led the way with 13 points and eight steals, while Conner Glick added 10 points. Jeremy Wortham finished with six points and five rebounds.

Niles will face St. Joseph on Thursday in its next contest.

On Tuesday night, the Vikings opened their season with a 52-14 victory over Sturgis.

Brawley and Dustin Taggart both had 10 points. Gregory Jones added six.

JV basketball

Niles also had a balanced attack in the JV victory over the Wildcats.

Shaquille Phillips led the way with 15 points, while Alec Brown and Anthony Bice added 14 and 12 points respectively.

Rodney Applewhite grabbed eight rebounds to pace Niles, which also got six rebounds from Phillips.

“When you go to Mattawan you know you are going up against a well coached team,” Niles coach Josh Bourne said. ” Our goal was to overwhelm them with our athleticism and aggressiveness offensively and get them out of what they do best. We were able to do that because of the willingness of our kids to listen. There are very few games where every player is able to contribute many minutes and every player scores. It was such a tremendous team effort out of our players tonight.”

Niles will travel to St. Joseph on Thursday night for its next contest.