By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
The Tulalip Heritage Hawks basketball program is in the midst of a rebuilding year. After graduating Willy Enick and Robert Miles, Jr. last season, the program has no remaining players from that highly talented 2013-2014 team that ran the table in the regular season before making it all the way to the State tournament. Also, this year’s team only returns three players from last season in Josh Iukes, Nashone Whitebear, and Samuel Fryberg.
The Hawks opened up the season with four straight losses as all the new faces are getting their reps in while learning the offensive and defensive sets. The learning curve has been steep, but the coaches have been working diligently with their young team and hope to find a winning form.
On Tuesday, December 20 the Hawks (0-4) hosted the Summit Sierra Spartans at Francy J. Sheldon gymnasium. In a highly entertaining game, the Hawks found themselves winning 31-21 at halftime led by 15 1st half points by sophomore guard Paul Shay, Jr.
In the 3rd quarter, the Hawks built their lead to 41-25 midway through the quarter. The Spartans kept battling and started to find holes in the Hawks defense, while at the same time the Hawks offense went ice cold. Tulalip’s 16 point lead vanished as the game tightened up and in the 4th quarter with a little more than four minutes remaining the score was tied, 41-41.
In the game’s most tense moments, Hawks guard Josh Iukes came up huge. Josh all but clinched the game with three clutch free-throws and a key 3-pointer. When the final game buzzer sounded, Tulalip had defeated the Spartans 51-47 and earned their first win of the season.
Paul Shay, Jr. led all scorers with 20 points, while Josh and Nashone each added 10 points.