First Half

The Rockets came out of the gate and jumped right onto Hillcrest taking the lead 11-1. Through the midst of the first quarter Hillcrest was paving their way back into the game with the help of 6’7 Junior Dylan West who added 8 points in just 2 mins to make it 15-11. The Hawks were still down, but kept pushing forward to get the lead. The second quarter started with everyone in the starting 5 from Rich East in the scoresheets, and for Hillcrest just two players Robert Harvey with 3 and Dylan West with 10 and the score of 19-13. Hillcrest started the quarter with the ball and scored a basket from senior captain Jalen Hughes. Hillcrest started running their 1-3-1 zone and causing havoc and turnovers for Rich East. The Hawks were capitalizing well off turnovers. Robert Harvey got a break away steal and a thunderous slam to put the Hawks up by 2 points, 24-26. The Hawks were now on a role and with a lot of momentum. It was 1:43 seconds left in the second, Rich East were in the double bonus and started making their free throws putting them back up with the lead, 30-28. To end the half junior Jeremiah Staten made a and-1 lay up to send them into halftime up by 4, 32-28.

Second Half

It was Hawks ball coming into the second half up 4,32-28. The Rockets were now playing a scrappy man to man defense, and caused forced shots and turnovers by the Hawks. The Rockets went on a 6-0 run to give them the lead 34-32. Out of the timeout by the Hawks, they started feeding their big man Lamont bishop, and Dylan West. Those two were the catalyst to keeping Hillcrest with the lead. Dylan West was having a phenomenal game with 14. But once the guards of Hillcrest became greedy with the ball, he checked out mentally into the game. Starting to not get back on defense, grab rebounds, and take forced shots. Due to that the Rockets came into the 4th quarter up by 6 points, 42-48. Bobby Harvey came into the 4th quarter not wanting to lose, he starting hitting 3’s and capitalizing on defense. He scored 4 straight baskets to once again give Hillcrest the lead 54-51. Then tragic came when Harvey picked up his 5th foul and he found out with 1:32 in the 4th quarter and Hillcrest up 3. The Rockets came down and hit a 3 to tie the game up, but Lamont bishop scored a easy lay up from Jeremiah Staten to give them the lead again with 1:02 left in the game. It is 56-54 the hawks got a breakaway steal from Jalen Hughes and was up 4 points with 57 seconds left. The rockets had got fouled and converted made it a two point game, then Lamont bishop went coast to coast and got a And-1 to make it a four point game again. The rockets called a timeout and scored a lay up. With just 7 seconds left Hillcrest up 2 with the ball, freshman Kenton Wright throws the ball away and sends the game into Overtime.

Overtime

The Hawks was entering overtime without star captain Robert Harvey. The game is tied 60-60 with a 4 minute overtime. The Hawks won the jump ball and couldn’t seem to get a shot up, Rich East comes down on the opposite end and can’t capitalize neither. Both teams weren’t able to score a basket, until Dylan West puts up a easy lay up to put the Hawks up 2 with 1:34 left. The rockets were still in double bonus and they made their free throws to tie game back up. It’s 62-62 with 59 seconds left and Jeremiah Staten hits a three to put up Hawks by 3. The Rich East Rockets were still being fouled on the other end and going tying the game up once again. The Hawks has the ball with just 5 seconds left tied up at 65-65. Freshman Kenton Wright throws the ball over Jalen Hughes head, and the rockets were open for 3 and hit it at the buzzer the Hillcrest Hawks lost the regional championship 68-65.