Blackhawks triple 2013-2014 pre-season win record in five games

After the first five games of the 2013-2014 season, the Cheney High boys basketball team was still looking for its second win. One year later, things are different for the 3-2 Blackhawks.

“Realistically, we’re about a quarter and a half from being 5-0,” second-year head coach Chris Dunn said Sunday evening.

Cheney put together a two-game winning streak last week with road victories over former Great Northern League foe Deer Park and Timberlake High School of Idaho 3A classification’s Intermountain League. The Blackhawks won in somewhat similar, but also different, fashions, opening an 11-point fourth-quarter lead before hanging on for the 51-48 win at Deer Park while outscoring the Tigers in Spirit Lake 21-5 in the fourth quarter for a 54-28 blowout win.

Cheney built its lead last Tuesday at Deer Park through defense, Dunn said, especially from its guards who held the Stags perimeter scoring in check. But defense lapsed just a bit at the beginning of the fourth quarter, allowing back-to-back 3-point baskets cutting the Blackhawks margin to five.

Deer Park trimmed that margin to two in the final minute, but Cameron Hardt hit the front end of a one-and-one, helping Cheney preserve its three-point win.

The Blackhawks got balanced scoring, but had no players in double figures. Brett Wyborney and Ryan Smedley led Cheney with nine points each while JT Gould and Nick Hohrman added eight a piece. Smedley and Hohrman led Cheney on the boards with five each, while the Blackhawks committed 13 turnovers.

Saturday the Blackhawks didn’t play with a lot of “fire” in the first quarter against the Tigers, Dunn said. That eventually changed as Cheney outscored Timberlake 26-16 over the next 16 minutes to open a 10-point lead.

As at Deer Park, the Tigers opened the fourth quarter by scoring the period’s first five points, cutting Cheney’s lead to 33-28. That’s as close as they got as once again the defense clamped down, fueling a 21-point run that featured three, 3-pointers by Smedley to send the Blackhawks to a comfortable win, and 3-2 record.

“It was sparked by our intensity and not giving them anything offensively,” Dunn said of the run. “Not letting them do what they wanted to do offensively, and making them take cuts they didn’t want to make.”

Smedley finished with 16 points, 12 in the fourth quarter, to go with three rebounds, five assists and a pair of steals. Keenan Williams tallied a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds while Gould had what Dunn called a “do it all game” with seven points, two rebounds, two assists, two steals and four blocks.

Wyborney and Ty Graham both had seven boards as Cheney collected 68 percent of their available rebounds. The Blackhawks committed 15 turnovers, about three turnovers above the early season per game goal Dunn and his players set for themselves.

Cheney has a pair of games this week before entering the holiday break. The Blackhawks hosted Idaho 4A Moscow (0-3) Tuesday night, and traveled to Clarkston Dec. 18 for a GNL-opener with the league-champion favorite Bantams.

Cheney will then have 11 days before taking the court again against Northeast A member Riverside in a game played at West Valley, Dec. 29. The time off will give Dunn’s players a stretch in which to get over some early winter illnesses while evaluating where they stand after their first five games.

“We’ve put together some good quarters, couple of good halves,” Dunn said. “I don’t know that we’ve put together a game yet.”

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.