Black Hills boys set to contend again after improving their early-season fortunes
The 2018-19 basketball season was bittersweet for the Black Hills High School boys.
The Wolves won the Class 2A Evergreen Conference championship, reaching the state tournament for the first time in eight years and only the second time ever. They rallied from eight points down in their opener to tie Anacortes, 38-38, in the waning moments. But the Seahawks scored the final six points, sending Black Hills home with a 14-10 overall record.
A veteran Wolves’ team, which includes nine seniors led by eighth-year coach Jeff Gallagher, knows there was more to their early elimination than an inopportune scoring drought.
Under the recently revamped method of seeding the state tournament – teams qualify as always, though district competition, then are seeded with the help of a computerized Ratings Power Index – Black Hills had sealed its fate in November and early December.
Though they claimed the top seed out of the EvCo with a 9-1 league record tarnished only by a one-point loss to rival Tumwater, the Wolves had started the non-conference season 3-6, dooming them to a low RPI. They entered state as the No. 15 seed and had to travel 120 miles to meet No. 10 seed Anacortes in Mt. Vernon.
Vowing not to let their RPI get away from them so quickly this season, Black Hills was off to an 8-4 start pending games Friday and Saturday with EvCo tail-enders Rochester and Aberdeen. The Wolves losses came to two 3A schools, one 4A and King’s Way Christian, ranked in 1A.
“Having so many seniors you’re naturally going to get off to a better start,” Gallagher said. “Our non-conference schedule is really tough, but it’s gotten us ready for league play. Everyone wants to read into the RPI, but we just want to play the toughest non-league schedule that we can.”
“We know how devastating the start of last season was,” added 6-foot-1 senior guard Avery Armin. “We knew it was important to come out strong and set a tone for the whole season.”
Last year’s slow start followed a season in which Black Hills’ football team reached the state quarterfinals while this season’s successful beginning came on the heels of a non-playoff year for football. But Gallagher doesn’t see getting key rotation players Nic Bovencamp and Zach Loveless back into basketball shape sooner as a factor.
“The school spirit and the energy were so high last year. Everyone was so excited about what football was doing. It fed right into basketball,” he said.
The plus Gallagher and his veteran coaching staff -- including his dad Larry, Shane Dover and a woman he calls the next quality head coach in the area, Heidi Paschal – didn’t count on was the number of players they can count on.
“We’re able to put 10 different kids on the floor who could play for anyone in our conference. I thought we’d be deep, but I didn’t think we’d be this deep,” he said. “Our kids are selfless, not worrying about who’s playing or not playing, just everybody playing their role.
“It says a lot about our coaches and the atmosphere they bring to practice. Everything’s competitive.”
Seniors Zach Crumley (12.8 points per game through the first 12), Armin (7.4), Weston Ainsworth (7.2) and Bovencamp (6.9) have scored as expected, but 6-6 junior Justin Hicks has been the unexpected X factor, leading the Wolves early with 12.9 ppg and 8.6 rebounds per game.
“Justin played JV for us all last season and he’s come in and averaged almost a double-double,” said Gallagher. “I knew what we were going to get from our nine seniors. Justin stepping up was something we were hoping for. It’s been big.”
Next week will be pivotal in determining the 2A EvCo champion. Black Hills meets W.F. West, 2-1 with the loss 53-40 on opening night to the Wolves, then Tumwater, undefeated in league heading into the weekend.
Armin led Black Hills with 16 points against W.F. West while Crumley added 10, but the Bearcats played without point guard Kayden Kelly, who was ill. Kelly has returned in a big way, becoming a local internet sensation earlier this week when his off-the-backboard pass to Carter McCoy in a win over Rochester resulted in a highlight reel dunk.
“Next week’s huge and our kids know it,” Gallagher said. “We’ve had such great games with W.F. West and Tumwater in the past. Our non-league schedule is geared toward playing bigger schools like Tumwater. We know there’s no margin for error.”
Though both are classified 2A, Tumwater is decidedly the larger of the Tumwater district’s two high schools with nearly 350 more students than Black Hills. More to the point, the No. 6 T-Birds, who had lost only to 3A Kelso by a single point on opening night, could take a 14-1 record into Friday’s game if they defeat W.F. West and Aberdeen in upcoming games.
“We’ve got to keep our energy up,” said Armin of the challenging stretch.
“If we stick together as a team, we can win all these games coming up,” added Crumley. “We’re going to have ups and downs. We need to keep pushing thrown the downs.”
Most of the Wolves senior group played together before high school, starting out on Little Wolves kids’ teams and continuing on a travel team during middle school, building bonds on and off the court during out of state trips.
“Growing up playing together has helped create great relationships among guys on the team,” said Armin.
After his team was knocked out of the NCAA tournament in the first round for the second year in a row, a notable college coached once said he was tired of just getting a cup of post-season coffee and wanted “at least half a sandwich next time.”
Black Hills feels the same way after its latest venture to state ended the same way the school’s only other appearance did, with a regional round exit.
“The Anacortes game was a spark to get us going,” said Crumley. “We don’t want it to happen this year. We want to go to Yakima.”