The King’s Way Christian boys basketball team has made it a habit of surprising people.
It started last season when the Knights went second in their league, second at district, and then went on a run in the state tournament to finish second at state.
So when the Knights’ star player — sophomore Bryson Metz — was on the bench Tuesday in a walking boot, some might have expected King’s Way to have a tough time against league rival La Center.
But Knights had another surprise, jumping out to a 15-point lead in the first half, then fending off a late Wildcats rally to win 56-50, improving to 4-0 in Trico League play.
“I’m just super proud of our guys because they’re in a hard circumstance right now,” King’s Way coach Daven Harmeling said. “I just thought they responded really well. I thought they showed a lot of maturity. Obviously, we weren’t perfect, but, given the circumstances and limited practice time, I thought they did a great job. I think they were amazing teammates to each other tonight, and I think you saw how much they love Bryson.”
Bryson Metz injured his foot late in the Knights’ win over Seton Catholic on Jan. 15. The Knights hope he can return this season, but also know they’ll likely need to complete the rest of the league season without their leading scorer.
The Knights showed they could do that, led by senior Brady Metz contributing 27 points and 10 rebounds, including seven 3-pointers.
“With the injury to Bryson, the scoring load has to be dispersed,” Harmeling said. “And obviously it helps when you have Brady hitting however many 3s he had and getting 27 and 10.”
But Brady Metz credited his teammates with getting him open shots, adding he wasn’t the only one making big shots. Gage Koenders hits two 3-pointers, as did Kai Butterworth, and Ty Snider’s lone 3-pointer put King’s Way ahead to say after La Center had taken the lead with a late 10-0 run.
“Our depth is fantastic, and we trust everybody,” Brady Metz said. “It just showed that we can knock down some big shots.”
Harmeling said Butterworth and senior Kobi Cason played big roles in helping the Knights’ against La Center’s press, a job normally handled by Bryson Metz.
“We haven’t worked on press break in two years,” Harmeling said. “Bryson is kind of a cheat code on a video game where you just don’t have to work on press break. So now we were like ‘Whoa we have to work on press break. We have to figure that out.’ And I thought the guys handled the ball really well and took care of it.”
Cason added 10 points and eight rebounds.
“I don’t think our guys ever lacked belief, but I think they knew it would be different with the injury to Bryson,” Harmeling said. “So you saw some guys take on some extended roles. You saw Kobi handle the pressure, facilitate and saw the way he can rebound. Kai handled a lot of the ball-handling responsibilities. Ty Snider did a great job of just staying steady, finding the open guys and facilitate the offense. Mason Packer came off the bench and gave us a lift. A lot of guys just came in and gave us a pop or filled in. … So this was definitely a team win.”
