Hillcrest battles back but falls just short in TitleOne Tip-Off epic with Vallivue

IDAHO FALLS — The Hillcrest Knights put on a charge late in the second quarter and threatened to erase what had been a double-digit Vallivue lead for much of the first half.

But Vallivue (2-2) seized all the momentum while simultaneously rocking Hillcrest (0-4, 0-0) with a stomach punch, when they scored the final five points of the half — the last three of which coming on a 55-foot buzzer beater, as the Falcons sprinted, cheering into the locker room with a 43-29 lead.

It would have been easy to lie down in the second half, and a lesser team may have. But the Knights, the reigning 5A state runners-up, battled back to take a lead with under a minute to play in the fourth. After surrendering that lead, however, a game-tying buzzer-beater from senior Creiden Nield hit front iron as Vallivue celebrated again, this time with a 65-64 win in Thursday’s opening round of the TitleOne Tip-Off Classic at the Mountain America Center.

Head coach Mat Barber said after the game that he loved the heart and effort his team displayed in the second half.

“That second half was heart, effort, energy … we’ve just got to figure out a way to go all four quarters with that same effort,” he told EastIdahoSports.com.

Barber said that the same can be said of his team’s single-digit losses to Madison and Pocatello this season.

The Knights had a gameplan in place for Vallivue, he continued, but the inexperienced squad, which returned just one starter from a year ago, let the coaches’ instructions “go in one ear and out the other.”

After heading to the locker room having been zapped by Victor Gutierrez’s heave, Hillcrest came out sizzling in the third. And behind big shots from Nield, Ethan Saunders and Dieter Kesler, and some very stingy team defence, the Knights cut the deficit to a manageable two points, heading into the fourth down 51-49.

The Knights tied the game at 51 when Tyson Sweetwood opened the period with a bucket.

Hillcrest took its first lead of the night with just under a minute to play, when Kesler drilled his second 3-pointer of the game.

The freshman finished the night with 12 points, while Saunders, a sophomore, added 11.

“Those guys are going to be big for us this year and throughout the next few years as well,” Barber said of the young duo. “We’ve got some talented young players — our future is bright — and we have plenty of seniors, we’re just inexperienced right now.”

Barber quickly redirected, though, saying that “inexperience” can’t be an excuse when all five of the team’s starters are football state champs.

“At this point, we have too many seniors who just need to figure it out,” he said.

Seniors Sweetwood and Nield rounded out Hillcrest’s double-digit scoring quartet with 13 and 20 points, respectively.

After swapping buckets, Hillcrest had the ball and left it to Nield for the fadeaway from 15 feet. All of the Knights seemed surprised when their teammate, who had hit big shots all night, came up just short.

With the loss, the Knights fall into the consolation bracket, where they will face the Century Diamondbacks, who lost to the Boise Brave Thursday evening.

The key in that game, Barber said, will be stopping Justus Mangum — “he can do a little bit of everything,” the coach noted.

Simply put, he concluded, Hillcrest will need to play four quarters with the heart and energy with which they played the second half Thursday night — and they will need that in every quarter going forward if they want to return to the state tournament.