Blackfoot overcomes early deficit to beat state championship hopeful Hillcrest
Published at | Updated atBLACKFOOT — Last year’s 4A state runners-up, Hillcrest boasts a veteran team, littered with seniors who bring a wealth of experience into every game.
The same cannot be said of Blackfoot, who lost to the Knights in the first round of last year’s state tournament but do not have a single senior on the current roster. Facing the gauntlet, Blackfoot seemed to be fighting uphill in the first quarter Tuesday at Blackfoot High School, scrapping just to stay within striking distance of their conference foe.
But something clicked late in the first period, as the Broncos scored seven of the last 11 points to pull within one heading into the second.
On a Chett Hyde triple to start the second quarter, Blackfoot (4-4, 2-0) took its first lead of the night. They never trailed by more than a single point the rest of the night, holding off a late charge from the Knights (6-4, 0-1) en route to a scintillating 52-50 victory.
“We got up 10 with about four minutes to go and I thought, ‘Man, this is going to be good,'” said Blackfoot head coach Clint Arave, adding that he knew Hillcrest was too good a team to go away without a fight.
As for what changed late in the first quarter and into the second, Arave said it was as simple as his young team coming to the realization that it was capable of topping the mighty Knights.
“Hillcrest has been so good for so long that it’s kinda hard to consciously decide that we’re going to beat them,” he said. “It took that first quarter of just coming out and competing, and doing the best we can. Finally, once we got that lead, it was like, ‘Hey, we can do this.’ … We’re learning. We’re learning on the run.”
Juniors Austin Arave and Kasen Sorensen played key roles in the turning of the tide in the first quarter, combining to score the last nine Bronco points of the period. And their impact was felt all night.
Sorensen, who grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds, put the finishing touches on a double-double by scoring a pair of late clutch buckets. And Austin did it all for Blackfoot, scoring a game-high 19 points to go with six rebounds and five steals.
For a team lacking a senior to keep things rolling in the right direction, Arave said, it is “very important” to have a point guard like Austin, able to do precisely that with both skill and discipline beyond his years.
“I don’t think we could do what we do without him,” the elder Arave said.
As things went back and fourth in the third quarter, with one-point leads changing hands on seemingly every possession, that was when the 5-foot-10 guard — the smallest player on the court — took over.
In a four-minute span, Austin grabbed three rebounds and swiped two steals — while also scoring 12 straight Blackfoot points. The result was a seven-point Bronco lead heading into the fourth.
Clinging to a 50-40 lead with just over three minutes remaining, Austin and the Blackfoot offense seemed to slow its attack — appearing to be looking to bleed clock.
But sacrificing the aggression that had been their strength led to a Hillcrest run, keyed by their own point guard, Gage Blakeslee, who finished with a team-high 13 points to go with two rebounds and two steals.
Almost as if he was looking to match the run put together by his opposite number, Blakeslee scored four straight points, wrapped around both his rebounds and one steal. Add in 3-pointers from Ian Dunnells and Titan Larsen, and Clint was forced to call timeout in what was suddenly a tied game.
His team’s most recent bucket had come on a Sorensen rim attack nearly three minutes prior and the lead had evaporated with less than a minute remaining on the clock.
Blackfoot went right back to Sorensen, who worked his way into the paint and hit a tough, contested turn-around jumper to give his team a 52-50 lead.
“I know what he’s capable of,” Arave said of Sorensen. “We went to him in that last possession, and I knew he was capable of making that shot. … He met the competition tonight and did a really good job.”
The final 20-plus seconds saw several mad scrambles, steals by both Austin and Blakeslee, and finally a rebound by Blackfoot’s Lawrence Cousineau, who sent a free ball to the Broncos’ end of the court. Hillcrest was able to run it down and call time, but with 0.9 seconds remaining, were unable to get another shot.
“I’m just super-proud of the kids for finishing,” Arave said. “I told them we’d have to hold (Hillcrest) in the 50-point range, so our defensive effort was where it needed to be, and we held on and made it work. Hopefully we can build on this and just keep moving forward.”
Hillcrest is back in action Thursday, when the Knights host Idaho Falls.
Suddenly tied with Bonneville at the top of the 5A High Country Conference standings, Blackfoot with travel to play the Bees (6-3, 2-0) at their home court Thursday.