By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
After routing Grace Academy by 42 points, 69-27, in the opening round of the District 1B boys basketball tournament, the Tulalip Heritage Hawks (16-1) hosted Providence Classical Christian (7-7) on Saturday, February 8.
Dawning their white home jerseys in front of the Francy J. Sheldon gymnasium faithful, the Tulalip boys put on a clinic in game plan execution. On offense, they wanted to prioritize their speed and athleticism to force an up-tempo game. While on defense, they wanted to hound the only Providence ballhandler and prioritize gang rebounding to keep Providence’s 6’4 behemoth from easy buckets in the paint.
From the opening tip, the boys stuck to their priorities. Guards J.J. Gray and Amare Hatch put constant pressure on Providence’s primary ballhandler, making him uncomfortable and forcing him to commit turnover after turnover. Their pressure ignited the offense with one transition bucket after another. The Hawks commitment to gang rebounding kept Providence’s big off the glass and denied him any clean looks. Remarkably, Tulalip’s defense didn’t allow a single bucket in the 1st quarter. A quarter in which they dominated to the tune of a 22-3 lead.
The Hawks extended their lead to 42-13 at halftime, 57-22 by the end of the 3rd quarter, and led 70-24 midway in the 4th quarter when coach Shawn Sanchey put his bench players in. With the W all but secured, freshman Deveyon Wells splashed a 3-pointer to the excitement of his friends and family watching from the stands.
The boys 73-28 trouncing of Providence including the most well-rounded scoring output of the season. All five starters scored in double figures. Davien Parks led the way with 21 points, J.J. scored 13 and Ziggy, Amare and Davis each added 10+.
“Our energy and effort output on both sides of the ball really stood out this game,” said coach Shawn post game. “We played Providence twice during the regular season. That experience allowed us coaches to come up with a game plan to take away their strong suits. Our boys executed that game plan and you could see how much Providence struggled to get into their offense sets.
“I trust our boys to be able to full court press a team for four quarter of playoff basketball because we worked all season to develop that constant defensive intensity and energy. Now, it’s time for all that hard work to show when it matters most,” he added. “Looking forward to our matchup with Lummi and even beyond, to Tri-District’s and Regional’s, our success is going to come from having the mental discipline to stick to the game plan and to continue executing the way we’ve done all year.”