With a record of 9-9, South’s men’s varsity basketball team is looking to wrap the season up with a victories in the upcoming conference games.

Nine seniors, seven juniors and one sophomore make up the team with senior captains Danny Nikitas, Devin Maki and Johnny Cowhey. The players get along well and are all very close, according to Maki.

“A lot of them are a bunch of goons,” Maki said. “I love all my teammates. Basketball is a really long season so you get to know all of them really well.”

Head coach Ben Widner believes this year’s team is hardworking and responds well to challenges.

“They’re fun and they’re hard working,” Widner said. “We challenge them and they respond. We have a good mix of kids, [and I have] a team that I think has a good sense of humor but knows how to be serious when the time is right.”

The team started the season with a Thanksgiving tournament at New Trier. The Titans played Lake Forest, Saint Ignatius and Loyola. They ended with a placement of second, losing to Loyola in the championship and facing a very intense game against Lake Forest.

“Our game against Lake Forest was very exciting,” Widner said. “They are a ranked team and we beat them. That was our first game of the year.”

South also faced some disappointing defeats in their Christmas tournament at Wheeling. The team played Deerfield, Niles North and Notre Dame.

“In Wheeling we placed sixth or seventh,” Nikitas said. “We didn’t do that well in that tournament.”

According to Maki, the most memorable game was one against Niles West, which helped the team start the season right.

“[It was a] double overtime win in our second conference game,” Maki said. “If we would’ve lost that, we would’ve been 0-2 in conference and that would’ve been pretty brutal to take.”

The key reason for their win in the Niles West game is that they kept fighting back despite the fact that they had to play two overtimes, according to Nikitas.

“We could’ve given up so easily,” Nikitas said. “We got down like 10 or 11 points with two minutes in the fourth quarter and we just clawed our way back. That happened in the last overtime too, and we just kept fighting back, and that was great to see.”

Widner wants the team to work on their defensive skills along with a more efficient offense. He believes that if they can work on the little things, it will make a huge difference in their performance on the court.

“[We want to] turn the ball over less, get to the free throw line more and get excellent shots every possession,” Widner said.

The goal for the team is to go undefeated in the rest of their conference games, according to Nikitas. They want to finish the season off strong and improve their record.

“I think we want to go undefeated in the rest of our conference season,” Nikitas said. “We have four conference games left, and I think they are all winnable, but they aren’t going to be easy.”

The seniors, who set great examples for the whole team, have mainly led the team to success, according to Nikitas, Maki and Widner.

The Titan’s next home game is against New Trier on Feb. 14 at 7:30.