krobinett@journalnet.com

Playing without starting forward Taysom Hill, everyone on the Highland boys' basketball team knew it was going to take a balanced effort to go into The Palace and beat Pocatello on Friday.

So the Rams spread out their offense and responded to the challenge.

Ten different Highland players got their names in the scorebook, and the Rams eked out a 48-45 victory.

"Taysom is a big part of our team and we missed him, but we all kinda banded together and said we were going to fill in the gap he normally gives us with points and rebounds," senior forward Avery Manu said. "We were really pumped up to do it, and we came ready to play."

The win gave Highland a season sweep of the Indians, and both victories came without Hill in the lineup.

He missed the first game to go on a recruiting trip to Stanford, where he has signed to play football. Hill skipped Friday's game at the advice of his coaches and parents to avoid any fallout from the much-publicized illegal hit he took during the Black and Blue Bowl.

"Because of what happened in football, we just told him to sit this one out," Highland coach Chris Frost said. "Even if it was only a 99-to-1 chance of anything like a repeat of that happening, we didn't want to take it. We had a long meeting about it, and because the game didn't really mean anything, we figured we'd go without him."

Not that his absence mattered. His teammates were more than capable without their star player.

Manu led the Rams with 14 points and hit two clutch free throws in the closing minutes. Joseph Denney stepped into the starting lineup and scored eight points, Brady Smith sank three jumpers for seven points and Jared Erickson added six.

But with six other players scoring, the Rams' points came from everywhere.

"Just about everyone made a shot here or there," Frost said. "That's what we wanted. Everybody stepped up."

Still, it was the Indians who took an early lead. Behind the hot shooting hand of Ryan Pearson, who scored 12 points on four 3-pointers, and 18 points from Colter Morton, Poky built a 20-12 lead midway through the second quarter.

But Highland answered right back with a 7-0 run to make it a one-possession game at halftime.

From there, both teams went back and forth until the final seconds. That's when Manu got fouled driving to the basket and hit two free throws to put Highland on top for good 47-45 with 29.6 seconds left in the game.

"Avery did a great job getting to the basket all game," Frost said. "He was big for us."

Manu said he felt confident at the free-throw line.

"I got up there and just told myself, 'You can do this. Your team needs these shots, so make 'em,'" he said. "And I did."

After Manu's free throws, Highland got a defensive stop on the end and added a Denney free throw to make the score 48-45 with less than 10 seconds remaining.

Poky called timeout and set up a final play to Pearson, who had an open look from the outside at the buzzer, but his shot was just short.

"Ryan had the hot hand, and we wanted to get him the ball," Poky coach Lee Ralphs said. "It was the shot we wanted. He just maybe rushed it a little, and it didn't go in. But that's not what hurt us tonight. We missed too many puppies. I don't know how many times we couldn't get an easy layup in the basket."

With the loss, Poky dropped to 8-12 and will next play Preston in the first round of the 4A Fifth District tournament on Tuesday at The Palace. Highland will next face a to-be-determined opponent in the 5A District 4, 5, 6 tournament on Thursday.

Hill will be back for that game. Manu thinks he'll be joining a team that grew without him Friday.

"The last time we played without Taysom, we went on an 8-2 run through the season," he said. "That's what we're going to do again. We're ready to go."