When the Austin boys basketball team took on Minnehaha Academy I made the rare choice of attending the game as a spectator — not a reporter.

While I absolutely love my job and covering prep games is a joy that continues to keep me going, the downside of working in sports media is you begin to feel distant from the crowd and the games themselves. You’re not allowed to cheer, pick a side or truly take the game in as fan. You’re more busy taking stats and trying to conjure up a story-line as the game goes on.

If you’re not careful, you’ll end up becoming detached from the joy of sports.

On Saturday I put down the notepad and I didn’t bring my recorder to the game and I simply observed what happened in Austin’s 61-59 win over the Redhawks in St. Thomas Academy.

First off, Minnehaha is absolutely the real deal. Sophomore point guard Jalen Suggs can cover ground like a top-flight defensive back and his quickness with the ball is incredible, eighth grader Prince Aligbe is a physically gifted man-child who is likely headed for a great basketball career, and senior Javonni Bickham, a Division I commit at the Denver University, has a great shooting touch and he also looks like he could play tight end for a Division I college football team.

If there was a team that might have been able to intimidate Austin, it would be Minnehaha.

But these Packers weren’t intimidated, they responded just as senior Moses Issa described the team in a preseason interview — they were fearless.

It was a phenomenal basketball game that saw many Packers step up in different ways. Dongrin Deng hit a big corner three-pointer and played great defense, Luke Hawkshead had a huge blocked shot and lay-up late in the game, Issa was a play-maker throughout the night, Medi Obang was a relentless force on defense and he was aggressive on offense and Tate Hebrink proved he can be as clutch as they come. Hebrink could’ve held his head down after he missed two free throws after technical foul on the Redhawks late in the game and he could’ve withered away after Suggs came up with a steal and a pull-up three-pointer to tie the game at 59 with 30 seconds left.

But Hebrink and the Packers weren’t going to give in. In a game that resembled a tournament environment with a lot of contact and a lot of crowd noise, Hebrink made the biggest statement without saying a word when he rebounded a a missed three-pointer by Issa and layed it in with .8 seconds left to give Austin a big win.

Hebrink was fearless and so are these Packers.