Sports
Flowers’ Beats Buzzer, Valley Wins District Tourney
By: Seth Austin
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In Valley’s district semifinal contest with Coal Grove, senior guard Chris Flowers missed all seven of the three-point attempts he had. On Sunday, Valley walked away victorious when Flowers sunk a three-pointer at the buzzer to give his Indian’s squad a district title win over Portsmouth.
“It was going to have Hayden [Dunn] rolling into the lane and give it to him for the last shot,” Valley coach Scott Rolfe said. “Bryan [Rolfe] got the penetration, they collapsed on him and it was a great kick out. That’s Chris’s specialty.”
Flowers finished with a game-high 17 points connecting on five shots from beyond the arc, three of which came in the second period which helped the Indians take a 35-32 lead into the half.
“In the first half he kept us in the game,” Rolfe said. “He kept matching their threes. Our concern was going to be could they shoot like they did last night. They did at times. What a great night for a senior.”
Dunn, Valley’s District Player of the Year, contributed with 15 of his own pulling down seven rebounds.
Portsmouth, behind the play of sophomore Kyre Allison, made it a game late. Down two, the Trojans put Valley forward Ryan Brown on the line where he missed the front end of the one-and-one. Portsmouth took possession and Allison found freshman Kendal Reynolds under the basket to tie the game up at 55. Flowers sunk the three at the other end to bring the Trojans’ season to a close.
“These seniors just have a will to win,” Rolfe said. “Three time conference champ. Now we’re finally district champs. They finally have this feeling tonight.”
Senior Isaiah Lisath scored 14 points for the Trojans hitting four three-pointers of his own. Allison also finished with 14 and padded the stat book with eight rebounds and 7 assists.
Valley advances to the regional semifinals where they will meet up with No. 7 Martins Ferry on March. 12.
“You can call them a 7 seed, I’ve seen them play,” Rolfe said. “They’re big. They run a very good defensive scheme. I’m hoping we can get it into a little more of a track meet.”
The Indians and Purple Raiders will battle for a spot in the regional finals at the Convocation Center with tip scheduled for 6:15 p.m.
Photos from Valley's thrilling win over Portsmouth by WOUB's Nick Bolin: