HOCKINSON — It did not take long for the bright, flashing lights at the nearby fire station to spread the news.
“Hawks Win.”
“League Champs.”
Over and over again.
Might as well spread the news in a headline, too. The Hockinson boys basketball team won the Class 2A Greater St. Helens League championship Tuesday night with a 63-52 victory over R.A. Long.
“This is huge. We felt with this group we could really go out and do this,” said senior Joshua Hall, who had an MVP-type performance with 26 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Hawks. “It’s an awesome feeling. We’re on top of the league.”
It is the second league title in the program’s history — the Hawks won the 2005-06 Trico League title — but the first since mighty Mark Morris and Hockinson were put in the same classification the next season. Hockinson and Mark Morris each finished 10-2 in league play, but the Hawks get the top seed with their 2-1 record over the Monarchs this season.
Just so happened those were the first two wins over Mark Morris in the program’s history.
See, all kinds of history this season for the Hawks.
Hockinson will host Black Hills of Tumwater in Saturday’s first round of the Class 2A District 4 tournament.
This title did not come easy, although it looked like it at first.
Hall scored 10 of Hockinson’s first 13 points and had 12 points and six rebounds through the opening quarter, leading the Hawks to a 12-point advantage.
“Starting out that way just gave the other guys confidence,” Hall said. “We’re a confidence team. Then Justin Schauer hit some big shots.
Sure enough, the lead remained at 12 at the half, thanks in part to Schauer’s hot hand. He was 3 for 3 from 3-point range in the half.
The Lumberjacks would launch an attack in the second half, cutting the deficit to six in the third quarter, then five points on three occasions in the final period.
The Hawks, playing in front of a large, spirited home crowd, had a response — every time.
“We were concerned,” senior Greg McGuire said. “But we knew we had to hustle through it, play solid defense.”
Two of the three seniors on the squad — Hall and McGuire — played a large role in the hoop that sealed the victory.
Hockinson had just turned the ball over on consecutive possessions, having trouble against R.A. Long’s half-court trap. The Lumberjacks had crept to within five at 55-50 with 2:20 remaining when Hockinson coach Matt Gruhler called a timeout to settle his players.
“R.A. Long is a talented team. We knew we had to play for 32 minutes no matter how we started the game,” Gruhler said.
The players left the huddle and knew just what to do.
“To break that press, you get the ball in the middle,” Hall said. “Greg knew what cut to make. I got the ball in the middle, turned and looked, and there he was cutting.”
McGuire caught the pass, then had to make a tough lay-up against a desperate defense.
“You can count on Greg to make that,” Hall said. “He finishes.”
“Take care of the ball, be strong with it, and find the open guy,” Gruhler added.
That score pretty much finished the Lumberjacks. R.A. Long did get the next basket, but the Hawks had shown they could handle the pressure and went 6 for 6 at the line the rest of the way.
The final horn set off quite a celebration.
“No better way than to go out than like this,” McGuire said. “We’re No. 1 in the league.”
“Having that kind of support was just amazing,” Hall said, giving some appreciation for his classmates and his community, dressed in Hockinson blue.
Hall, Schauer and Doug Macdonald combined to make six 3-pointers in the first half. Schauer ended up with 14 points, while Macdonald scored 12.
R.A. Long was in an interesting position of trying to knock off the Hawks and give its rivals from Longview sole possession of first place. The Hawks, who lost to the Lumberjacks once this season, knew they could not let their guard down in this final game.
“We came into practice knowing we had to have each other’s backs,” McGuire said.
“There was no taking it easy,” Hall said. “This game could have gone either way.”
It went Hockinson’s way, giving the Hawks their second league title and first for first-year head coach Matt Gruhler.
“I have a great group of kids,” he said. “My players come to play every single day. That makes my job easy.”
