Even before Tuesday, the pieces were pretty much already in place for the boys basketball program at Boulder High School to win its league title and qualify for the upcoming postseason.

After years of near-playoff misses, however, the Panthers weren’t keen on leaving even the smallest room for doubt.

A long-awaited celebration spilled out onto their home floor after they beat Westminster, 67-54, to wrap up their first league title in nine years. The winners of the Rocky Mountain League will end a four-year absence from the postseason next week.

Fittingly, it coincided with their senior night.

Senior Cole Morrow must cool down eventually, right? With another 32 points in the team’s season-sweep of the Wolves, though, there’s no evidence that that’s coming anytime soon. He has at least 30 points in five of his past eight games and is averaging 28.4 points per game since Jan. 21.

As part of basketball’s longstanding championship tradition of cutting down the net, he was the first to climb the ladder and take a piece.

“It’s super special,” Morrow said. “Just to lock it in this year and know we’re going to the playoffs — and we won league — it’s just huge. And as a senior, knowing this is how I finish my basketball career, it feels really good.”

Fellow senior Manny Flores added a career-high 12 points for the Panthers (13-8, 10-1 6A/5A Rocky Mountain), who dominated despite admitting to not having their best performance.

The usually surehanded squad had too many turnovers, coach Matthew Smith said.

But that want for more may soon be someone else’s bad draw. With just days before the 40-team 6A field is set, the Panthers are ranked just 27th despite their dominating run in the Rocky Mountain League and strong nonconference schedule that includes wins over No. 24 Monarch and 5A No. 11 Longmont.

Back in December, meanwhile, they lost to 6A No. 8 Horizon by just three.

“It’s felt different than prior seasons with just how the team meshes and how we all trust each other out on the court,” said junior Lake Smith (16 ppg), who is the co-star of the backcourt alongside Morrow.

Among highlights from the two guards this winter, Smith scored 25 and hit the game-winning, buzzer-beater over Mountain Range earlier in the month. Morrow, in the meantime, has made at least three last-second heaves from midcourt or further back.

“This is the closest team environment I’ve ever had,” coach Smith said. “These guys are always together. Even before the game, they had a little shootaround and went and ate together. The camaraderie that they have — they’ll go to war for each other.”

The Panthers are at No. 43 Prairie View on Thursday before finishing the regular season at home against No. 26 Legacy on Saturday.

After that, they’ll likely play in the 6A first round — featuring teams ranked 25-40 — on Feb. 25.