SPARTA – There are a lot of practices, workouts, shootarounds and overall preparation that go into every basketball season — lot of time spent bonding, building a culture and setting a tone.
The hours that go into these things seem a little longer when a player looks up at the scoreboard and sees a loss. The Highland boys basketball team has experienced a lot of losses over the last couple of seasons … 26 over the last two seasons, in fact.
But when the buzzer sounded on a non-league game against Utica on Wednesday, Dec. 30, the Scots looked up at the scoreboard and saw a 49-44 victory.
“It’s pretty special,” senior forward Landon Remmert said. “Especially how we’ve really reshaped the program. It’s really special to get that first one under our belt. And I think it’s gonna propel us forward.”
Highland coach Christian Toombs wore a big smile on his face when talking about it after the game.
“They have done so much different than they have the last couple of years, and no one has complained,” he said. “They have tried to fill their roles as best they could, and that’s all we ask of guys. There’s no more individualism in this program anymore.
“We only won two games last year, so that confidence (isn’t high). They’re coming in here every day, showing up an hour early sometimes for Saturday morning practices. And it’s not just a few; it’s the entire program. For those guys to (do) all this stuff and put all this time — that’s what I’m really happy about; they finally got to see that it’s paying off.”
Toombs, who is in his first season at Highland’s helm, hasn’t won a varsity game as a head coach since he led East Knox from 2005-08.
An 8-0 run in the second quarter put the Scots (1-5) ahead for good. They pushed a 22-17 halftime lead to as much as 13 in the second half. Remmert and his teammates could taste victory.
“I think it really fed into our energy, especially at halftime,” Remmert said. “We were there, and we were determined to get this one and close it out.”
Gavin Hankins had 16 points and 12 rebounds; and Jordan Bellamy went for 14 points, seven rebounds and six assists to lead Highland.
Brock Church added eight points, five boards and a pair of assists; Garrett Fitzpatrick had six rebounds to go with two points and Remmert had a team-high two steals.
Utica made the Scots earn it, however, closing within four on a Zach Heckman 3-pointer with 41.2 seconds left.
A hobbled Elijah Larue, who’s been playing with a bad ankle for much of the season, tied Seth Cooper for the team-lead with 12 points; and Heckman added 11 to lead Utica (2-6).
“It’s been tough because (Larue) started off with five points and then tweaked his ankle and sat out for the bulk of the rest of the first half,” Utica coach Brian Radabaugh said. “For him, it’s tough to come back and continue to grind away, playing on one leg. But he did, and he did a good job of battling all the way through. He did what he could and he was part of what brought us back in the fourth quarter.”
Heckman had five rebounds, three assists and three steals; Cooper added six rebounds and Sean McCutcheon chipped in five points and six rebounds for Utica, which scored 20 points in the fourth quarter to stay close.
“We’ve struggled offensively over the last few games,” Radabaugh said. “So it was nice to see us attack and get reward for it. We got to the free-throw line better than we have, and we knocked a couple of shots down. We hope that’ll carry over and we can get back into our groove a little.”
