South Falls Short Against Valley View

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Twin Valley South again is playing shorthanded this week. But they gave a good accounting of themselves against a bigger and deeper Valley View team.  Seth Baker played a whale of a game, scoring 26 points for South a personal career high.   South kept the game close for most of the night and in the last minute made the game exciting as they battled intensely to tie the ball game and force an overtime.  But they were unable to connect and fell just short – 50 to 47.

Valley View was able to play around with their lineups and opened the game with a small, quick lineup. Although the Spartans tried to beat TVS down the court in transition, the scoring was slow in the early going.  So Valley View went to a taller lineup midway thru the quarter. This change made a difference as South was not shooting well from outside and the extra height made a difference on the boards as Valley View got second chance shots.  This gave Valley View a 17 – 10 lead as the first quarter ended with Spartan trey at the buzzer.

When Valley View lengthened their lead to 11 points, Coach Augspurger took a timeout at the two minute mark and the team responded with nice run.  At the break the Spartan lead had been trimmed to 5 points.  The team opened with some sloppy play in the 3rd quarter, giving up some easy turnovers.  And things began to look dicey when Seth Baker, who had been playing well, got his third foul midway through the quarter.  But South was able to stay on the heels of Valley View into the 4^th quarter.

In the 4^th quarter South made a determined charge at the Spartans.  They closed the gap to a single point about midway through the quarter.  Valley View extended their lead back out and so South who had been in a zone – changed over to full court man to man with 2 minutes left and resorted to fouling.  And Valley View couldn’t find the rim, but South was unable to convert those rebounds into points at the other end of the court.  South had several chances to tie, and although they hit iron – their shots just wouldn’t drop.  

“We were shorthanded and missing several key components,” stated coach Augspurger after the game.  “We’re making changes and making adjustments.  Our players that played did an excellent job. We competed, but we just didn’t rebound well enough. They made some shots and they shot a little better than I expected.  But the biggest thing is that we let them have too many second chances. If we had rebounded better, I think we would have walked out of here with a W. We put ourselves into a position to win it, but we just couldn’t do it there in the last minute. But I am pleased with our effort and I am pleased with our intensity.”