Hidden Valley Steals One From Franklin County In 52-51 Win

Hidden Valley senior guard Luke Marston runs the Titan offense down the stretch against Franklin County defender Briggs Parris as Hidden Valley scored the last five points to pull off the 52-51 win Saturday night.
Hidden Valley senior guard Luke Marston runs the Titan offense down the stretch against Franklin County defender Briggs Parris as Hidden Valley scored the last five points to pull off the 52-51 win Saturday night.

There was a robbery Saturday night in the Hidden Valley gym.

The Titans boys basketball team pulled off the perfect heist and getaway.

Trailing 51-47 in the final ninety seconds, Hidden Valley used a layup, pair of steals and a free throw by junior Jaret Lipps, then survived a rim-hanger to pull off the 52-51 non-district win over the Franklin County Eagles.

The Eagles looked to have the upper hand late in the fourth quarter when Franklin County senior forward Brice Arrington sank two free throws that gave the Eagles the 51-47 advantage.

But, Titan center Jaret Butenschoen followed with a driving scoop at the 1:23 mark that cut the deficit to 51-49, and Luke Marston followed with a strip near mid court and score with :50.1 seconds left, tying things at 51.

On their subsequent possession, Franklin County was meticulously attacking from the perimeter when the Titans got its second steal along the Eagle baseline and called timeout with :24.8 remaining.

Hidden Valley was holding for the last shot when Arrington fouled Lipps near mid court, sending Lipps to the line with 8.2 seconds left for two free throws with the Titans in the double bonus. Lipps canned one of the charity tosses and the Eagles called timeout with 7.7 seconds remaining. After advancing the ball into the FC zone, another timeout was called by Eagle head coach Keyode Rogers with 4.1 seconds to go. On the inbounds play, the Eagles called their third and final timeout after assessing the Titan defense for their final shot.

Franklin County fired the inbounds pass inside the free thrown line and got a good look on a 12-foot jumper that hung on the rim before precariously falling off as the buzzer sounded.

“Those two steals were character builders,” Hidden Valley head coach Troy Wells, who has announced this will be his final year of coaching, noted afterward. “We didn’t fold and really competed in the last 1:20.”

“It was a good team effort,” Wells added. “I saw a lot of positives tonight, especially since this was just our third ball game. Some really good things from Butenschoen and Will Harrison.”

It was close throughout the entire contest. Franklin County led by as many as 7 points in the first half before settling on a 24-20 lead at the break. Graham Whitaker’s trey to end the third quarter gave Hidden Valley a 41-38 lead heading into the final quarter that saw six lead changes.

Whitaker led the Titan scoring with a game-high 12 points, with Butenschoen following with 11.

Bradley Parcell paced the Franklin County scoring with 10 points, while Arrington netted 9 for the Eagles.

Hidden Valley (2-1) returns to action December 29th in the Holiday Hoopla at the Salem Civic Center where they will take on Alleghany in a first round matchup.

– Bill Turner

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