It wasn’t always easy, but as the final seconds ran out Tuesday night at home against Foster, it was definitive: The Hazen boys basketball team won the Seamount championship for the first time since 1998.
“I’m just really happy for the kids,” said Hazen coach Gary Schaplow. “It’s been a tough year for them. They got slapped with some pretty serious adversity early on.”
The Highlanders’ (15-3 overall, 12-1 Seamount) previous coach, James Olive, was fired after the team played in a jamboree without enough practices.
“My goal coming in was do help them achieve their goals that they had before I even got here,” Schaplow said.
Hazen’s strong defense allowed them to stay comfortably ahead of Foster (11-8, 8-5) for much of the game – until an 8-0 run by the Bulldogs late in the second quarter.
“We didn’t take good care of the basketball in that stretch,” Schaplow. “We had wasted several trips and every possession counts in a game like this.”
Foster took the lead briefly but only held it for 16 seconds. Hazen went into the half with a slim, 27-26 lead.
The teams traded blows through a fast-paced third quarter, until Hazen went on a 10-0 run to open another lead. R.J. Magar keyed the run with two straight three-pointers. Magar led all scorers in the game with 23 points. From that point on Hazen just had too much firepower for Foster and never allowed the Bulldogs to get closer than six points.
“This is our best game as far as really taking care of the ball in the half-court set and making the other team play defense,” Schaplow said. “Our defense allowed us to pull away.”
De’Corrius Sampson scored 14 points and Dawit Kasa scored 13 for Hazen. Brandt Graybeal grabbed nine rebounds for the Highlanders.
Hazen’s focus on defense from the start was to limit Foster’s sophomore star Trevaunte Williams.
“We were really focused on taking his comfortable spots away,” Schaplow said. “He’s a heck of a plyer.”
Williams scored 13 points, which led the Bulldogs, but is under his season average of 20.4 points per game.
Hazen finished the regular season last night against Renton. The Highlanders hold a three-game lead in the league standings, so will be league champions regardless of the result against Renton. The win against Foster was the team’s 10th league win in a row after an 89-85, overtime loss to Kennedy Catholic Dec. 10.
The Highlanders lost to three teams (Kennedy, Kentwood and Skyline) with a combined record of 36-18 by a combined total of 10 points.
Hazen will face the top team out of the SPSL 3A, either Lakes (14-2) or Decatur (13-5), in the first round of the sub-district tournament Feb. 11. The winner advances to districts with the top seed. The loser is still guaranteed to advance to districts with either the second or third seed.
