Senior Trey Smith dribbles down the court during a fast break opportunity against the rival Kewpies. 
As always the boys basketball team competed and fought hard against cross town rival Hickman High School to come out on top of a triple overtime thriller, 58-49. This puts the Bruins at 16-6 on the season and helps to improve their conference record to 5-2.
It’s always tough to measure how a providence showdown in basketball will go. Even when it seems like the Bruins or the Kewpies are leagues ahead on paper, the true story unfolds much differently on the court.
For RBHS, a 15-6 record compared to Hickman’s 10-11 mark would seem to put the Bruins at an immediate advantage in skill, but as head coach Jim Scanlon put it, that’s never enough to win a basketball game.
“We started out terribly, and a lot of it has to do with underestimating Hickman,” Scanlon said. “I give a lot of credit to them for doing that, because even though we kept telling our kids all day how much we needed to focus, Hickman got us out of our game plan early on which definitely surprised our guys.”
The Bruins went into halftime down 3 and in need of a push, and Scanlon did what he could to provide that for the team.
“I really laid into the guys because they did exactly what I didn’t want.” Scanlon said. “I expected more from everyone, and I like to think that they came out with it in the moments we really needed it.”
For a team that centers itself around so much young talent it can be tough to come up big in crunch time, however, so it’s no surprise that senior forward Tre Williams took it upon himself to push RBHS to the finish line, and the win. With 16 points, and 10 of those coming in overtime, Williams became the driving force of the RBHS comeback.
“Hickman is always an emotional game, that’s why I think the games are always so tough,” Williams said. “Tonight we really just had to get back together against a good team, but beating Hickman is always worth it.”
With only three games left in the regular season, the win comes at the perfect time for Scanlon and the team to get ready for Rockhurst and the chance to get one more win inside the conference.
“We get to enjoy this win right now and some tonight,” Scanlon said,”but tomorrow we’ve got to get straight into focusing on Rockhurst. Hickman can’t affect us moving forward.”
Do you think the result will be the same should the two teams meet in the district tournament? Leave your comment below.