LICK CREEK, Ky. – Shelby Valley put on what might be the best high school team performance in quite a long time last night against East Ridge, advancing them to the 59th District Championship to face Pikeville.
Valley was red hot from behind the arc, draining an astounding 22 three-pointers as a team. Caden Johnson won Mountain Top Sports’ Community Trust Bank Offensive Player of the Game, scoring 27 points and hitting seven three-pointers, three of those coming from back to back possessions that started a huge rally for Shelby Valley.
And Johnson wasn’t the only 20-point scorer of the night.
Jonah Bartley was close behind him scoring 25 points. Jonah played his role as the teams spark plug perfectly and set the tone right off the bat for Valley scoring five quick points to start the game. He also ended the night with five three-pointers.
Gavin Hamilton, who won Mountain Top Sports’ All You Can Be Defensive Player of the Game, also had a hot night, scoring 20 points and hitting four three-pointers. The 15th Region Player of the Year, Brady Johnson, ended the night with a double-double scoring 17 points and snagging 10 rebounds and Colin Newsome, the P-Rod Towing Hot Rod of the Game, came off the bench scoring 11 points all in the fourth quarter.
A performance like last night can really set a team up for some great momentum as they get deeper into the playoffs, and Shelby Valley looked confident and focused from start to finish. Coach Matt Taylor deserves a lot of credit for how his team played last night. Taylor told us Tuesday what it means for them moving forward.
“I’m excited, my guys came out and played with some intensity,” Taylor said. “They have been growing over the last three or four games. I try to do a mini-regional tournament at the end of season and play the best teams that I can possibly play to try to get them ready for the intensity and also the whistles and the atmosphere that goes behind district and regional tournament games.”
He also offered thoughts on the upcoming game with Pikeville.
It’s going to be a tough game versus Pikeville, Elisha has a one of the better teams in the in the entire region, we’ve played them three times and we came up 0-3 at this point our closest game being in the All A,” he said. “I’m excited to see how our guys can come out and do on a neutral floor in a big-time moment for our schools and big-time moment for both of our programs and to play good competition and see what happens.”
Shelby Valley plays Pikeville in the 59th District Championship, Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at East Ridge High School. Tune into our livestream on TV, Facebook, or 93.1 WDHR to catch the action!
