It's no surprise to Bill Heard.
All season, the Ralston boys basketball coach has been hanging on to his team's hopes for finding the right stride at the right time and, in the last two weeks, it appears to have come into step.
"We're playing the best we have all year," Heard said. "We've kind of been waiting around for this and we're getting there."
Looking ahead at a brutal District B-2 Tournament field, however, Heard said he knows there's a long way yet to go, but having won three of four games heading into a Tuesday night tilt with Skutt Catholic and then onto Districts this weekend, the Rams aren't slacking.
In the last three games, a near-total domination of Norris on the road, 66-53, and a last-second victory at Bennington on Valentine's Day, 58-56 and then an upset of sixth-ranked Skutt Catholic, 62-53 Tuesday, RHS shot nearly 50 percent from the field and got major contributions from several players heretofore in largely supporting roles.
"It's been good to see some guys stepping up," Heard said.
"We've been wanting to see that and it's happening."
Against Bennington, junior Andy Chleborad came alive to lead the Rams with 19 points, including a 6-for-9 performance shooting from beyond the 3-point arc.
Sophomore Zach Flott compiled his fifth double-double on the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds and also added two assists.
Senior William Basset poured in 14 points and blocked two shots and junior Jake Goltl had seven points and seven rebounds.
The biggest points of the night, however, came off the hand of Brad Simpson, who put up just one shot all night but did so at the right time, as he tipped in a buzzer-beater to upend the Badgers at the wire.
In the win over Norris on Feb. 18, Flott again tallied a double-double with 16 points and 15 boards and Goltl fell just two rebounds short of pulling the same trick, with 15 points and eight rebounds.
"Norris is still Norris," Heard said. "They beat Gretna the night before and going into the fourth quarter up 17, we knew they'd still be a challenge. But our guys were up to it."
Though the Titans came back to outscore RHS 21-17 in the final period, RHS had enough in the tank to put the clamps down and secure victory.
Bassett led all scorers with 24 to add more to what is already looking like an All-State résumé.
"Will's an All-Stater," Heard said. "You never know how all the postseason awards are going to shake out, but in my mind, he belongs up there."
Against Skutt on Tuesday, Goltl led the Rams with 18, followed by Bassett's 17 and the Rams got 10 apiece from Chleborad and Flott. At presstime, seedings in the District B-2 Tournament were unavailable, but it's likely the Rams will play Platteview in the play-in game Saturday at Westside. A win there would pit RHS against archrival Gross Catholic on Monday.
"Ralston-Gross in a District matchup," Heard said. "That's usually how these things go."
The other teams in the bracket are Skutt and Gretna.
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