Wilson is ‘norming.’ That includes 25 points, 16 rebounds from UConn signee Emmitt Matthews Jr. in win over Spanaway Lake

Wilson High School boys basketball coach Dave Alwert learned it from one of his coaching mentors, former Western Washington University men’s basketball coach Brad Jackson.

Storming, norming and performing.

Granted, norming is one of those made-up coach words. But this is the process, he said, that all of his best teams have endured, and what’s making this year’s team a far more cohesive unit than at this juncture than a season ago.

Let Alwert explain it:

“You storm, you norm, you perform,” he said. “The first part of your season you’re always storming – everybody is trying to find their role and push past their role and establish the pecking order.

“When you start norming is when everyone starts following the expected role – what you’re doing on the court, knowing your minutes, what’s going on. You start norming how you want to play.

“Once you start norming, then you can start performing. I learned that from Brad Jackson a long time ago and I see it with us – we’re norming how we want to play.”

If the norm is UConn signee Emmitt Matthews Jr. finishing with 25 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks as part of almost five players scoring in double figures, then watch out for seventh-ranked Wilson.

It cruised to a road victory against No. 8 Spanaway Lake, 72-54, on Friday for its fifth consecutive victory and is starting to look like a team that has every reason to make a return trip to the Tacoma Dome.

That’s because Wilson (10-2) has traded its individual, isolation basketball for a fluid, cohesive team game. It’s only losses so far are to No. 3 Lincoln and 4A No. 1 Gonzaga Prep – and it was leading in the second half of both those games.

“Last year we were more individual,” Matthews said. “We’re close this year. We have a close bond. If one guy takes a shot and misses it, or if I take a little too many shots and they aren’t falling, they lift me back up. We do our best to lift each other up and just keep playing.

“You see what happened tonight when we play as a team – all game long.”

Alwert put it another way.

“They just like each other,” he laughed. “They really like each other. And what we talked about tonight – play loose and free and have fun. They play so much better when they are loose and moving and sharing the ball.”

And so much better when Matthews dominates in all facets.

The 6-foot-7 senior had 14 rebounds in the first half against a guard-heavy Spanaway Lake, that hadn’t lost a game until falling, 68-62, to No. 3 Lincoln on Wednesday. It scored 97 points in its Spanaway Lake Christmas tournament against Evergreen of Vancouver less than a week ago.

Isaiah Turner led the Sentinels (9-2) with 17 points (pushing him to 1,007 career points) and 10 rebounds and Divante Moffit had 15 points.

Moffitt spoke to his AAU teammate Matthews just after the final horn sounded with tears running down his face. That’s how bad he wanted this one.

“I think mentally and physically we were drained,” Spanaway Lake coach Dominic Batten said. “We had a packed house on Wednesday and fought really hard and our top guys played a lot of minutes. You got one practice to prepare for a team that plays completely different. It’s tough.

“We talked afterward about playing with heart. We talked about how we’re going to be tired when we play. Have pride. With our schedule – if we want to go far, it’s going to look like this. We are going to play physical teams, very athletic teams and you have to play with heart, play with pride. I felt like we didn’t have enough of that tonight.”

Wilson built a 13-point lead in the first half before taking a 35-25 lead into halftime – the same score Spanaway Lake led by against Lincoln.

Matthews missed tried to tomahawk a dunk off of a Sentinels missed shot that bounced hard off the rim and out of bounds, but he got a steal and finished a two-handed dunk the ensuing possession to give Wilson a 39-25 lead.

Redeem himself?

“Oh yeah, he did,” Wilson’s Daniel Santana said.

But then Spanaway Lake went on a run. It forced three consecutive turnovers (including two charges) with a couple baskets from Moffitt and Turner’s 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 41-36.

But Matthews’ 3-pointer made it 51-40 entering the fourth quarter and Wilson didn’t look back. Wilson went on a 24-6 run to take a 67-44 lead midway through the final period.

Londrell Hamilton scored 11 points, Santana scored 10, Dom Ellison had 10 and Damani Green added nine.

“Now compared to last year, we trust each other way more,” Santana said. “In practice we always keep each other up and that’s really important. Keep your teammates up and everyone wants to play.

“Everybody brings something to the table,” said Hamilton, a fifth-year senior. “We all have our defined roles and at the end of the day we come together as a team.”

Matthews said he thinks this is the best defensive team in the state, with how fast their guards are combined with their length in the passing lanes.

“But I can’t give you the secrets,” Matthews said with a smile. “We just D up. Just lock up. Our on-ball pressure … I say we have the best defense in the state. That’s just how I feel.”

Batten just thought his team was tired.

“We took a lot of high-percentage shots and we had a lot of open looks that we didn’t get against Lincoln,” Batten said. “The only difference tonight was the legs weren’t there. We were right around the basket missing layups. Not to discredit them. They are a good team. But we just didn’t have the energy and it affected us on the offensive and defensive ends.”

This story was originally published January 5, 2018 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Wilson is ‘norming.’ That includes 25 points, 16 rebounds from UConn signee Emmitt Matthews Jr. in win over Spanaway Lake."