LONGVIEW — The Black Hills boys basketball team did just about everything except put the ball through the hoop Thursday. And unfortunately for the Wolves, that bit is important to winning in basketball.
For the second straight year, Black Hills bowed out of the 2A District 4 tournament a game away from a regional bid, falling 54-30 to Ridgefield at Ted M. Natt Court.
“There’s a lot of teams that would have loved to be in our position,” BH coach Jeff Gallagher said. “But we just couldn’t get it done.”
The Wolves finished the night going 11 for 46 from the field for a tough 23.9% shooting clip, and were an ice-cold 1 for 19 from beyond the arc. They scored on back-to-back possessions just once all night.
When Xander Shepler stole the ball at halfcourt and took it the other way for a transition layup with 25 seconds left in the third quarter, he made what would be Black Hills’ final field goal of the season, as the Wolves went 0 for 10 from the field in the fourth quarter.
Early on, Ridgefield came out in a similar bind, turning the ball over five times in the opening quarter. The Wolves managed just two buckets in the first period, but seven minutes into the game, they trailed just 7-4.
Five points in the final 30 seconds pushed Ridgefield out to a 12-4 lead, and in the second quarter it was more of the same; Black Hills came away with more stops than not on the defensive end of the court, but even five buckets — three of which were 3-pointers — were enough to give the Spudders a 25-14 lead at halftime.
“I thought defensively, we did what we could, but when you’re not scoring the basketball, it’s easy to lose energy on defense,” Gallagher said.
That’s where the lead stayed most of the rest of the night. Black Hills’ fans knew the Wolves were just two or three baskets away from making a real game of it down the stretch, but those baskets never came. By the end of the third quarter, they were still down 11 at 35-24, with eight fewer minutes to work with.
“We just could never make a dent,” Gallagher said. “It was 11, 13 for awhile. But we couldn’t score. They’re a great defensive team, and that has a lot to do with it, but we just couldn’t score.”
Keagan Rongen finished his Black Hills basketball career with a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double; his 4-for-13 outing from the field was still second-highest percentage of anyone who took multiple shots. Harrison Pilon added seven points and hit Black Hills’ lone 3-pointer, while Johnnie Stallings and Jack Ellison both scored four.
Black Hills is set to graduate eight players: Stallings, Rongen, Shepler, Pilon, Max Johnson, Christian Cooper-Davis, Bronson Campbell, and Arius King.
“What they’ve done for our program has been great,” Gallagher said. “It’s tough to say goodbye to them.”
