Key defensive ingredient to Bellarmine’s semifinal run? Bruising Heisel brothers
Bellarmine Prep’s Heisel brothers don’t do much barking in games, and even less in practice. Unless it’s when they’re matched up against each other.
“They just bully the crap out of each other,” second-year Bellarmine basketball coach Bobby Moorehead said, semi-jokingly, after the Lions beat Edmonds-Woodway on Thursday morning to advance to Friday’s 3A state tournament semifinals. “They just love it. They never get fired up about anything I say or anything a teammate says, but when the brother says something, they lose their minds. It’s pretty funny.”
Classic brotherly love. Ben, a 6-foot-5 senior forward, is the older brother. Luke, a sophomore forward, the “little brother,” even though he’s listed an inch taller on the roster at 6-foot-6.
They’re throwback-type players: willing to play defense, do the dirty work and bang around against opponents in the paint. Their length has disrupted some of the area’s best offenses all season and is one reason the Lions find themselves in the 3A semifinals.
“We love (defense),” Ben Heisel said. “(Moorehead) pushes us in practice, defense. In the game we’ve gotta play defense. Work hard, play defense. We’ve got (guard) Ronnie (Wiggins), too, one of the best defenders in the state.”
Brother Luke summed up his feelings in three words.
“Defense wins championships,” he said.
Moorehead said the brothers are coachable and keep their heads down.
“They just work hard, they don’t talk, they just want to compete,” he said.
The proof is in the pudding: Bellarmine held Edmonds-Woodway to just three points in the third quarter, which is when it began to pull away in Wednesday’s quarterfinal game. Edmonds-Woodway shot just 35 percent from the field in the second half.
Bellarmine has gone on this run — which included a win over Eastside Catholic in the state regional round before playing in the Dome — without the help of sharpshooting guard Kade Price, who suffered an ACL injury in the 3A Puget Sound League tournament last month.
“Kade was a very important part of our team,” Ben Heisel said. “I feel like when he went out, we were down, but we came back. We’re gonna do it for him and bounce back for him.”
Bellarmine’s biggest test on defense yet will come in Friday’s semifinals, where the Lions face top-seeded Rainier Beach and Tyran Stokes, the nation’s No. 1 high school recruit.
