The metro area's high school basketball playoffs open this week with four programs carrying storylines that go well beyond win-loss records, from a Cedar Hollow team riding a schoolwide athletics revival to a Lowertown squad that has made the postseason with a fraction of its rivals' resources.
Cedar Hollow High enters the boys’ playoffs as one of the field’s most-discussed teams, not just for its 19-4 record but for what it represents at a school still riding the momentum of its football program’s turnaround after years of losing seasons. Boys’ basketball coach Ronnie Pruitt said the football team’s success changed something in how students at the school see athletics generally. “Two years ago, kids who could play basketball were choosing other things to do after school,” Pruitt said. “Now our gym is full for JV games. That doesn’t happen by accident.”
A scorer to watch in Riverside Heights
Riverside Heights High enters the girls’ bracket as the No. 2 seed behind senior guard averaging 24.6 points a game, one of the highest marks in the metro area in more than a decade, according to coach Denise Falk. Falk said the team has built its offense around getting its star scorer in position to attack early rather than saving her for late-game situations. “You don’t hide a weapon like that,” Falk said. “We want teams seeing her in the first three minutes so they have to make decisions about their defense the rest of the night.”
Falk said the bigger challenge has been depth behind her leading scorer, since foul trouble or an off shooting night can leave the offense without a clear second option. “We’ve talked about it all season,” Falk said. “Our margin for error is thinner than a team with our record should have, and the playoffs are exactly where that gets tested.”
Lowertown’s budget-defying run
Lowertown Community High enters the boys’ playoffs as a No. 6 seed after a 15-8 season that coach Vincent Ochoa said was built almost entirely on player development rather than roster turnover, since the school’s athletics budget does not allow for the private trainers and travel-team exposure some rival programs’ players receive. “Our kids aren’t playing in the same offseason circuits as some of these other schools,” Ochoa said. “What they have is four years in the same system, learning the same principles, and I think that shows up in March.”
People assume a team with our resources can’t compete once the games matter most. I’d rather let our record against the two higher seeds we’ve already beaten this season do the talking.
Vincent Ochoa, Head Coach, Lowertown Community High
Ochoa said the program’s biggest obstacle remains facilities rather than coaching or talent, since the team practices in a gym shared with three other school programs and rarely gets a full two-hour practice window during the winter. “We make it work because we don’t have another option,” he said. “I’d love to see what this program could do with what some other schools in this district have.”
West Bellwater tries to prove it was no fluke
West Bellwater High, which reached the semifinals last year before losing by a single point, returns as the No. 3 seed in the boys’ bracket under coach Marcus Whitlock. Whitlock said this year’s team has faced more skepticism than last year’s surprise run, with some rival coaches suggesting last season’s success depended heavily on a senior class that has since graduated. “We heard all offseason that we got lucky,” Whitlock said. “I don’t think you go 22-6 and take a one-point loss in the semifinals on luck. We’re out to make that argument again this year.”
Whitlock said his team’s identity this season is defense first, pointing to a stretch in midseason when West Bellwater held three consecutive opponents under 45 points. “We’re not going to outscore everybody,” he said. “But if teams need 55 points to beat us, that’s a game we like our chances in every single time.”
All four coaches said the playoff bracket this year is unusually balanced, with no clear favorite the way there sometimes is in years when one program dominates the regular season. Pruitt, whose Cedar Hollow team is the top seed in the boys’ bracket, said he has told his players not to read too much into the seeding. “Seeds tell you what happened in December and January,” Pruitt said. “They don’t tell you anything about what happens once everybody’s season is on the line.”
Falk said she expects the girls’ bracket to be similarly unpredictable, noting that three of the four semifinal-caliber teams have beaten each other at least once already this season. “Anybody who tells you they know how this shakes out is guessing,” she said. “That’s what makes this time of year fun to coach and miserable to coach, depending on the night.”
District officials said ticket demand for the opening rounds has been strong enough that at least two first-round games have been moved to larger neutral-site gyms to accommodate crowds, a shift Ochoa said he welcomes even though it means Lowertown’s players will not have their usual home-court advantage. “I’d rather my kids learn to perform in front of a bigger crowd now,” he said. “If we’re going to make a run, it’s not going to be in a gym they’ve never seen before.”