By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
The Heritage Hawks were coming off back-to-back wins over non-league opponents, Lake Roosevelt and DeSales, when they welcomed the Providence Highlanders to Francy J. Sheldon gymnasium.
Last season, Providence offered quality competition for Heritage thanks to a contrast in style. The Highlanders had a much slower pace of play, ran sets that methodically got the ball to their big man, and were able to effectively score points in the paint.
Heritage head coach Shawn Sanchey said they’ve been preparing for this matchup. “We’ve seen pretty much the same iteration of this team for two years now. We know everything Providence wants to do is based around their big man,” he explained. “Expressing to our boys that, yeah, he’s a big body, but we are quicker, more agile, and more athletic, which means it’s him that can’t match up with us. Not the other way around. As long as we keep our discipline defensively and don’t get into foul trouble, I expect to run away with this one.”
Run away they did. Heritage soared from the opening tip as they took a 17-7 lead that turned into a 28-12 lead by the end of the 1st quarter. Senior guard Davien Parks, forward Davis Bachand, and guard J.J. Gray combined to score 26 of their team’s first 28 points.
In the 2nd quarter, all those in attendance were treated to Tulalip’s version of Lob City. Less than a minute into the quarter, sophomore guard Tayari Archibald pushed the pace on a transition break. He spotted teammate Ziggy Myles-Gilford streaking to the hoop and threw him perfectly placed alley-oop. Ziggy dunked it home with authority, a two-hand jam over two Providence defenders, that received a thunderous roar from the crowd. That was followed by junior guard Amare Hatch tossing an alley-oop off the backboard to Ziggy for another acrobatic bucket.
Tulalip held a whopping 47-20 lead at halftime.
“Our chemistry is finally where we wanted to be at the start of the season. We had so many guys dealing with injuries, me included, it was difficult to have that chemistry,” admitted J.J. “Man, and let me tell you, the energy that comes from Ziggy dunking, especially from a good lob, that just gives us so much momentum. We run it up from there.”
The entire squad did an admirable job of not letting the Providence get comfortable in the first half. The defensive clinic continued in the second half when the Hawks went completely lockdown and didn’t allow the previously mentioned Highlander big man to score a single point over the game’s final two quarters. Without his offensive production, the Highlanders struggled to get any quality looks.
Meanwhile, the Hawks kept the pedal to the metal and pushed the pace whenever possible. The Hawks routinely subbed in 3 or 4 or even 5 players at a time in the 4th quarter. The fresh bodies and young legs kept Hawks side of the scoreboard moving; from 52-20 to 63-22 to 79-24. The boys dominated the 2nd half and ended the game on a 27-4 run.
Davien finished with a game high 22 points. Davis scored 14 points, Ziggy scored 13 points and J.J. added 12 points.
“Having such a large lead allowed us to do some creative subbing and get a look at different player combinations,” said coach Shawn post-game. “Ultimately, those are valuable minutes for us as a coaching staff in order to see which combinations are able to execute. Now that we’re at the midway point of the season, it’s all about building on our momentum and being able to maintain a high level of execution throughout an entire game, regardless of who is on the court. That’s how we want to prepare ourselves for a championship run.”