BRUSH PRAIRIE — Beforehand, Jeray Key had a good feeling.
“You could tell,” he said. “Before the game when they were in the locker room, they were pretty hyped up. I watched them in warmups getting up a sweat.
“I turned to our coaches and said, ‘Yeah, they’re ready to go.’”
His R.A. Long boys basketball team hadn’t taken the floor in 17 days, a break so long that Key said it now almost feels like a new season beginning.
But if there were any 2A GSHL foes nursing faint hopes that time away had dulled the Jacks’ edge, they were in for a disappointment as R.A. Long proved Key’s premonition right, exploding for a 93-30 demolition of Hockinson.
“We just wanted to get back to where we left off at,” Key said. “We had a lot of momentum going, and we hoped to see that we were still sustaining that.”
It took about three possessions for R.A. Long to find out that it was, and once the Jacks got going, they didn’t slow down. It wasn’t a game with thunderous dunks, crazy crossovers, or much in the way of trash talk or even celebrations. This was four quarters of near-surgical, precise, death-by-a-thousand-cuts demolition, that left the Hawks wondering just what had happened on their court.
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R.A. Long ended with 28 turnovers forced, including 21 steals as a team, pressing the Hawks into pure chaos time and time again.
“Our defense, that’s what I preach,” Key said. “We’re scoring the ball pretty good, shooting it at a high clip, but we practice defense every day. That’s what I was known for, that’s what I know how to teach really good. I’ve always preached that defense leads to offense.”
Leading the way, senior Jamond Harris came away with nine steals of his own, putting up a challenge to the R.A. Long single-game record. He also led the Lumberjacks with 18 points and added seven rebounds and seven assists to a loaded statline.
“He’s an all-league cornerback,” Key said. “He knows how to read the ball. He’s really good, he’s a defensive-minded guy, and he’s quicker; he can beat guys to spots. He’s been my top defender since he was a freshman, and seeing it all come together as a senior, it’s awesome to see.”
That defense, as it normally does, got things started for RAL. The Lumberjacks figured out the best way to stop Hockinson and 7-0 big man Samuel Kelly was to not let the Hawks get the ball into the post, and promptly caused absolute chaos among the Hockinson guards, to the tune of 11 turnovers in eight minutes. That turned into an 18-2 run to end the quarter, with the Jacks ahead 28-8.
“I wouldn’t really say there’s much of a secret,” Key said. “It’s all off of reads. There is no certain rotation to it; it’s all off your own read. I let them play offensively as I do defensively — freely. They all have pretty high IQs. They’re making the right reads and making good plays.”
As dominant as the first quarter was, the second went a step further, with what ended up being the knockout blow. With 4:50 to go in the quarter, Aaron Ofstun hit a putback in the lane to put the Lumberjacks ahead 36-16, making it a 20-point game.
Less than a minute and a half later, it was a 30-point lead when Stephen Rooklidged downed a bucket.
Forty-five seconds after that, Aebel Milian nailed a 3-pointer, and with 2:45 still to go in the first half, R.A. Long had hit 50 points. The Lumberjacks kept going, by halftime were more than tripling-up the Hawks, 58-19.
From there, the only question was whether R.A. Long could hit 100, but a combination of Key calling off the full-court press in the second half combined with a running clock meant the Jacks came up just short.
Behind Harris, both Ofstun and Stephen Rooklidge had 16 points. Cavin Holden added 15, and Jake Gabbard put up 11; every RAL started ended up in double figures.
Behind them, Milian and Payton Thill hit a pair of threes each, and Lonnie Brown Jr. added five points of his own.
The Lumberjacks shot 48% from the field on the night, and were nearly identical from beyond the arc — 17 for 35 — as they were from inside it — 17 for 36.
“We have a lot of shooters on the team,” Key said. “All those guys getting in that can shoot the ball, it’s nice.”
R.A. Long (8-1) is set to come back south Tuesday to face Fort Vancouver.
