In basketball you live by the 3-pointer and die by the 3-pointer.
Wednesday night in the Hidden Valley gym. the Titans used the bombs from behind-the-arc to inhale for at least another game.
Hitting seven times from long range, Hidden Valley outlasted Blacksburg down the stretch to pull out the 55-48 win in first round Conference-32 tournament play.
The win sends the Titans to a semifinal matchup Friday night against Southwest County rival and #1 seed Cave Spring in the Knights gym.
Of the seven hits from downtown by the Titans Wednesday night, none was bigger than the one by junior guard Joseph Keenan with 48.6 seconds left in the game.
Blacksburg, which had trailed 48-44, tied things at 48 on a pair of free throws by senior Hank Skutt with 2:00 left.
Hidden Valley, methodically rotated the ball around the perimeter on their next possession before Keenan got free deep on the right side. The shot lasered home with nothing but twine.
After Blacksburg failed to score on the Bruins next possession, Hidden Valley junior Will Page put the Titans up 53-48 with a short runner, and a Bruin turnover with 21.4 seconds left sealed Blacksburg’s fate. Keenan and sophomore Jonah Fitzgerald each hit a free throw in the final 15 seconds to secure the final margin.
“I told the guys in the huddle we weren’t going to play for the last shot,” Hidden Valley head coach Kevin Burcham noted in the Titan locker room. “We wanted to be aggressive. We’ve been in so many close games and had eight games decided by five points or less this season, so we felt like we had learned to play in that situation. He knocked down a big shot.”
“Tonight, we hit 41% of our 3-pointers, and only in the mid 20% range on 2-point shots. It helps when you get the big shots to fall. Plus, having our best free throw shooting game of the season by going 24-of-28 helped us a lot.”
The big gun for Hidden Valley was Fitzgerald, who scored 11 of the Titans first 12 points to open the game, including a 3-pointer in the opening minute and a rare 4-point play off a bomb and harm later in the frame. Fitzgerald finished with a game-high 24 points, including 4 strikes from long range and 12-of-13 from the charity stripe.
The Bruins trailed by as many as 9 points in the early going before closing to 25-22 at the halftime break. Blacksburg went up 29-25 in the third quarter on J. Rob Hudson’s old-fashion 3-point play before Hidden Valley rallied to tie things at 36 heading to the final 8 minutes.
“It’s rough right now,” Blacksburg head coach Doug Day noted inside the Bruin’s locker room of the season-ending loss. “We were fighting to survive. You’ve got to play hard and we just couldn’t come up with points at the end. Give Hidden Valley credit. They got the 3-pointers when they needed them.”
Freshman Grant Johnston led Blacksburg with a team-high 17 points.
Less than a week ago, after Hidden Valley’s second loss to Cave Spring, Burcham quipped that maybe the third time would be the charm if the two schools met again.
“We’ll need to play our best game of the season,” Burcham said Wednesday night. “We’ll have to shoot well, rebound better and play defense better than we have all year.”
Bill Turner
