Sweetwood emerges as needed leader, Hillcrest wallops Century

IDAHO FALLS — After their fourth straight loss to start the season Thursday night, head coach Mat Barber said that his Hillcrest Knights were starved for leadership.

With six seniors, all of whom are state football champions, the Knights have the guys capable of providing that leadership, he said.

Before they played the Century Diamondbacks in the second round of the TitleOne Tip-Off Classic consolation bracket Friday afternoon, one of those seniors, Tyson Sweetwood, called a players-only meeting.

The star quarterback and forward said he told his teammates to lean on him, he told EastIdahoSports.com. He wants to be the one they come to if they need something, or if they have any questions, and he told them that in a coach-less locker room.

“Our first few games, we didn’t really have a vocal leader,” Sweetwood said after the game. “I took the challenge on myself to be that guy and to be positive all the time.”

Then he led by example on the court, scoring, rebounding, passing, defending and conducting his teammates the way one would expect from a quarterback and leader.

Behind 11 points, nine rebounds, one block and one steal from Sweetwood, the Knights (1-4, 0-0) earned a hard-fought 56-45 victory over the Diamondbacks (3-4, 0-0).

“He’s a leader on the football field, on the basketball court, he’s our only guy with experience,” Barber said. “I don’t know exactly what they said, but they figured something out in there. That’s the senior leadership we need.”

Sweetwood, normally an inside presence, got things going for the Knights, draining a corner 3 for Hillcrest’s first points of the game. And while he went quite scoring-wise for most of the first half after the deep shot, he could be heard from well off the court shouting instructions and encouragement at his teammates.

The Knights scored 11 straight, starting with the Sweetwood 3, to grab a quick 11-2 lead. But Century answered right back with a 14-point run of their own, grabbing a 16-11 advantage early in the second.

Hillcrest, though, came right back with seven straight, and scored nine of 11 to reclaim a lead they would never relinquish, late in the second.

After their Thursday loss, Barber said that the key to his team’s success would be defending Century guard — and D’Backs quarterback — Justus Mangum, who came into the game averaging over 20 points per game.

That task went to sophomore Ethan Saunders, who held Mangum to an inefficient 12 points.

“He’s a gamer. He’s physical, athletic,” Barber said of Saunders. “It helps — Justus is a great player, but he didn’t have his ‘A’ game today, and we’re thankful for that because he can go out there and score in bunches.”

Senior Adrian Gonzalez filled in as Century’s top scoring threat, posting a game-high 19 points, to go with six rebounds, four steals and one block.

Answering Gonzalez was a group effort for the Knights, who had several players score five-plus points but none score as many as 15. Creiden Nield was the Robin to Sweetwood’s Batman, finishing with 12 points and two rebounds.

With their win, the Knights will play for the consolation championship, Saturday against the Coeur d’Alene Vikings at 2 p.m. CdA, led by Caden Symons, beat Shelley 65-44 Friday to earn its spot in the game.

Century will face the Russets in the seventh-place game.

Barber said that the single most crucial factor in his team’s first win was effort.

“Our energy, effort was there, pretty much for 32 minutes,” he said. “We weren’t always the smartest out there, but our energy and effort was there, and that goes a long way.”

Those are things will be needed Saturday for Hillcrest to beat the Vikings, he added.

Sweetwood, who spoke about the importance of positivity and “positive touches” — like high-fives and athletic pats — said that they will look to continue that Saturday. They will also focus on talking more, especially on the defensive, with the expectation that the “offensive flow” will come from solid defense.

“We’ve just got to play together, and that starts on defense,” he said. “Everyone’s got to be communicating. I think we did a really good job of that today.”