Lee's Summit North preparing for Hawklets

As Lee’s Summit North head coach Mike Hilbert told his team Monday at practice, welcome to March Madness.

The Broncos play in the Class 5 state sectional game at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Independence Events Center against the Rockhurst Hawklets.

In my opinion, this game should be a good one. The two met in early January with the Hawklets needing a late three-point play to pull out a 58-55 win.

That was during an early-season stretch in which the Broncos couldn’t win a close game. But this Broncos squad is coming in with some momentum having won 12 of their last 14 games.

“We’ve had two really good practices (this week),” Hilbert said. “I really like where we are right now as a group. We’re playing with a lot of confidence.”

The two teams match up with each other fairly well, which was evident by their first meeting.

Both teams have two different kinds of post players, with the Broncos sporting 6-foot-9 lanky David Kravish, while Rockhurst counters with 6-foot-8 Cooper Beckett who sports a similar frame. On the other block will be North’s Chase Salazar and Rockhurst’s Dan Tapko, both who have strong frames and were tight ends on their respective football teams.

Hilbert hopes Kravish and Salazar can hold their own down low.

“We want to stay out on the perimeter which puts posts in a one on one situation, but I think they’ve (Kravish and Salazar) shown if they can stay in front of their post guy they can force tough shots making them shoot over them,” Hilbert said.

The reason Hilbert wants to stay on the perimeter is to keep a hand in the face of Hawklet guards Dexter McDonald and Matt Lampo. Both have the ability to hit the long ball, which isn’t something the Broncos do as successfully.

In other words, Hilbert doesn’t want to get caught in a three-point shootout.

“I think we can trade baskets but if they knock down threes that’s rough for us to stay in the game,” Hilbert said.

Hilbert said he watched the Hawklets in their district final win over Grandview, saying they looked tough to stop in the early going when they were running in transition.

“In the first quarter against Grandview all they did was attack the rim or kick it to shooters,” he said. “But when Grandview slowed down their transition and forced them into the half court that’s when they got back in the game.

“A lot will depend on whether or not we can do what we’ve been successful with, as far as defending and not giving up easy baskets and transition points.”

Transition and attacking the rim has been the way the Broncos have been winning as of late. They have been relentless with their penetration and transition game, which was on full display in their 66-45 win over Blue Springs South Friday.

But they weren’t the first time around against the Hawklets, and Hilbert made sure to remind them of that.

“I’m really hopeful that how we’ve won games, and I told them after Friday’s game, we hit three threes but we were attacking the basket,” Hilbert said. “I showed them on tape our game against Rockhurst and how we shot jumpers but when we reversed the ball and attacked gaps how much more successful we can be.”

There’s no doubt the Broncos will need to continue being aggressive on offense to pull out a win. They have guys like Kenny Berry, P.J. Lewis and Will Harrington that can knock down outside shots, but they can’t rely on that if they want to advance.

Two guys that have been instrumental as of late are B.J. Dunbar and Salazar.

Dunbar scored 28 against South and Salazar has picked up his play the last few weeks. And Hilbert knows he’ll need to bring his ‘A’ game Wednesday, especially going up against Tapko.

“One reason (we’ve been playing so well) is both our seniors are playing at really high levels,” Hilbert said. “Their maturity level encourages other guys.

“I think the key for us is when Chase feels good and is focused, we’re a different basketball team. I really like where he is right now. He’s been really up recently.”

The Broncos are hoping for a little revenge not just from earlier in the year but from years past. The Hawklets have been a thorn in the side of North, knocking them out of the playoffs back in 2005 – a sectional loss – and in 2006 in the quarterfinals.

And in the end, Hilbert knows along with all the Xs and Os, this game will come down to fundamentals.

“I think probably whichever team can go the longest stretches playing mistake-free will be the team that comes out on top,” Hilbert said. “Turnovers, giving up offensive rebounds I think will be really, really big.”

As of late, the Broncos have usually been the best at that. But this is when the stakes are the highest.

One of the most interesting things to see will be who handled the big stage the best.

The game obviously has plenty at stake, plus it’ll be at an arena bigger then they’ve played in all year. Handling the pressure of the situation will be key.

And Hilbert believes his team is ready.

“I think so. My impressions of them are they do feel really good. I think it’ll be a great game tomorrow,” he said. “I think we’ll be ready to play.”

Indeed, it should be a great game tomorrow and if you can’t make it, be sure to check us out here at the Journal sports blog as I’ll be coming to you with live updates from the game!