ARLINGTON — Entering their first Northwest Conference 1B game of the season, both Tulalip Heritage and Highland Christian were looking for consistency.
On Dec. 14, the Hawks played at a higher level longer than the Knights in a 76-32 win at the Arlington Boys & Girls Club.
“I told them to open up and run that offense,” said Heritage coach Marlin Fryberg about his motion-style attack. “Too often we run around and don’t get set, which results in a bad shot.”
But that didn’t happen against the Knights, as the Fryberg’s boys went on an 18-0 run in the second quarter to take a 36-10 lead and didn’t look back.
“I think what happened there was we were able to slow it up and look for better shots,” said Heritage forward Tino Renion. “We kind of got off too fast.”
Tulalip cruised from that point on, going on a 16-2 run in the third quarter as well to build up a 58-18 lead.
The Hawks’ aggressive defense forced 29 turnovers, many of which led to fastbreak points.
“I like to see that, but I don’t like to see it to the point where we have kids cherrypicking,” said Fryberg. “I don’t think we were at that point tonight and our defense is starting to come along.”
Leading the Hawks to victory was junior point guard Tisen Fryberg, kept Tulalip’s offense flowing as he scored 13 points and handed out 11 assists to go along with five steals.
The Hawks came at the Knights with a different look almost every possession as five players scored at least 13 points. Along with Fryberg, Keith George, Moses Williams and Renion scored 13 points while Abe Ramos had a team-high 14.
Fryberg said he was especially impressed with the play of Ramos.
“We’ve been working with him on his composure all year and he maintained it really well in the post against a physical team tonight,” said Fryberg.
The win is the first of the season for the Hawks (1-3), who are now 1-0 in conference play.
“It’s like I told the guys, we may have lost the last three games, but we were learning that whole time and none of it mattered until tonight,” Fryberg said.
