Records can be deceiving and low expectations can be misguided because of it. The Gregory School is coming off of back-to-back state championships with a combined record of 56-8 but the Hawks are sitting at 9-8 this year. Not good right?

Seven of those eight losses came during invitational play and the one loss that counts towards power rankings came against a 2A opponent. In fact, five losses came against upper division opponents including 4A, 5A and 6A. The reality? The Hawks are 8-1 in power-ranking games, ranked No. 2 in the 1A Conference and tops in the 1A South Region.

That ranking was put to the test when No. 9 St. David (9-6) paid a visit Thursday night. The Tigers are currently in third place in the 1A South Region behind The Gregory School and No. 2 Baboquivari (16-6) and the team is hoping to make a final push with about three weeks left in the regular season.

“We seem to come out nervous and then play well in the second half of games,” St. David junior forward Kason Jacquez said. “We need to calm down and create one-on-one situations instead of fast breaking so early.”

Reo Larson put St. David up 3-0 30 seconds into the first quarter but the Hawks started to run down the court and the Tigers found themselves down 9-3 with 2:22 left. The Gregory School went on to build a 24-11 lead midway through the second quarter with Josiah Prior scoring nine of his game-high 22 points in the process.

Jacquez scored seven of his team-high 20 points in the quarter and the lead was cut down to 24-16 at the half.

“We have a lot less star power this year and we are more tight-knit because of it,” Prior said. “I have to admit I had my doubts when the season started but we pulled together.”

The Hawks lost Tomari Harris (21.2 point per game), Demari Harris (12.7) and Anderson Mort (11.8) to graduation a year after the program lost Addison Mort (26.0) and Sebastian Quintana (15.2) and that came one year after Nick Rosquist graduated. Rosquist graduated in 2017 with 2,147 career points scored which is fourth on the scoring list for all of Southern Arizona. Addison Mort left the program with 2,024 career points – seventh on the scoring list. That’s a lot of lost “star power” right there.

Prior averaged 12.6 points a game to help lead the Hawks to a state championship last year and he’s putting in 21.8 this year.

Prior put the Hawks up 35-26 in the final seconds of the third quarter but Jacquez scored twice to cut the lead down to a 35-20 but that was as close as the Tigers would get the rest of the way.

Robby Gooding added nine points on three 3-pointers to go with the 20 scored by Jacquez. For The Gregory School, Prior had his 22 and Vince Edwards and Kasey Lapan scored eight each. Philip DuBose scored seven.

“I’m super proud of everyone on our team,” Prior added. “We really rallied this week.”

The Hawks host Morenci (5-9) on Friday and St. David visits Willcox (3-11) next Tuesday.

“We have so much potential,” Jacquez added. “Any one of us could lead the team at any moment.”