Opportunity knocked for Hidden Valley Saturday night in the William Byrd gym. The Titans got the door open. They just couldn’t get their foot in far enough.
Playing catch up the entire game, Hidden Valley closed to within a single possession three times in the fourth quarter before the Terriers escaped with the 61-59 victory. Byrd offered the Titans plenty of chances to close the gap.
“We had turnovers in some inopportune times, ” Byrd head coach Kevin Tuck noted afterward. “We’d get an 8-10 point lead, then Hidden Valley would come back. They played the pace they wanted and their zone defense contributed to some of our problems. We wanted to go inside, and the zone took some of that away. Once we got inside, we had trouble.”
Byrd scored the first six points of the game and led 16-10 after the first quarter. The Terriers opened a 25-16 advantage midway through the second frame before Hidden Valley went on a 7-0 run to close to within 25-23 in the final minute. The Titans helped the Byrd cause when they fouled Terrier guard Zac Hill in the waning seconds. After hitting the first of two free throws, Hill missed the second, but got the rebound and converted the stick back at the buzzer to send the teams to the break with Byrd up 28-23.
“We gave away points there,” Hidden Valley head coach Troy Wells said in the Titan locker room. “I always tell our guys it’s the second and third shots that win games.”
Byrd led by as many as 12 points in the third quarter, but Terrier turnovers kept Hidden Valley in the game. The Terriers took a 42-37 advantage to the final 8 minutes.
Senior Jake Beekman’s 3-pointer put Byrd up 51-40 midway through the fourth before the Titans made their final push.
J.J. DeVaughn’s two free throws got Hidden Valley to within 56-53. After Byrd’s Marvey’o Otey scored his only basket of the game moments later on a driving layup, a Titan 3-pointer made it 58-56 with 1:31 left.
Koty Collier scored in the paint for the Terriers and was fouled with a minute left. His free throw off the harm made it 61-56. Hidden Valley had a turnover and Byrd missed the front end of a one-and-one with :25 left. The Titans closed to the final margin with :06.5 left, but with the Titans out of timeouts, Byrd simply held the ball without inbounding as time expired.
“We put ourselves in a position to have a chance to win,” Wells added. “That’s a good William Byrd team. I’m pleased with our effort.”
Byrd countered Hidden Valley’s zone by hitting nine 3-pointers, including 4 from Beekman and 3 from Collier. Collier finished with a game-high 23 points. Beekman added 12, with Evan Owens chipping in 10 for the Terriers.
DeVaughn netted 20 points for Hidden Valley, with Graham Whitaker adding 15 in the Titan attack.
– Bill Turner
