Springs Valley Takes Down Paoli Friday Night In An Intense Rivalry Game 59-53

Oh the weather outside was frightful, but the basketball played inside the Paoli gym was anything but, as the Springs Valley Blackhawks took the short drive up 37 to visit the Paoli Rams in one of our featured games of the weekend. This game was intense from the tip to the final buzzer as both of these schools wanted to stick it to their rival in a game that went down to the wire. There is no love lost between these teams and it showed throughout the game eventually almost causing a fight between the respective head coaches. Here’s how it all went down…

Game Recap and Photos

Springs Valley came out hot, and for a while, it seemed like Paoli wasn’t going to have an answer for them as they started the game on an 8-2 run. Seniors Kannon Chase and Conner Grimes were almost unstoppable for the Blackhawks early on.

Meanwhile the Rams couldn’t seem to do anything against the Blackhawks ball-hawking defense turning the ball over and their shot selection was questionable at best. That all changed when the Rams employed a 2-1-2 pressure defense which started to contain the Blackhawks dynamic offense. Then comes in Fletcher Cole as the Rams freshman phenom dropped in a pretty and 1 and a sick ankle breaking 3 point shot. Cole jump started the Rams offense as they were able to come back and make it almost even at the end of the first quarter.

The Rams momentum carried over into the 2nd quarter as they opened with 2 straight 3-pointers from Fletcher Cole and Bladen Patton and took the lead with 5:38 to go. As is the theme of this game though, the Blackhawks would come back going on another 8-2 run to retake the lead going into halftime 27-26.

The theme continued coming out of halftime as neither team could seem to pull away. Whenever one team would go on a quick run the other always had the answer. Springs Valley would hold the lead, but a Trey Rominger buzzer beating lay in gave the Rams the momentum going into the 4th. At the end of 3 it was the Blackhawks leading 39-37.

The 4th quarter is where things got really interesting. The Rams seemingly forgot how to play defense as the Blackhawks seemed to get anything they could want in the paint and used this and their intense pressure defense to start to pull away. Paoli had some very ill timed turnovers which turned into easy transition buckets for Springs Valley. With about 3 minutes to go, the Rams started to amp up the pressure on defense causing some turnovers on their own. Paoli got the lead down to 3 at one point but just could not get over the hump as the Blackhawks were just the better basketball team down the stretch. Springs Valley held on for the win 59-53 in an amazing game.

Springs Valley moved to 9-3 overall and 3-2 in conference play while the Paoli Rams dropped to 5-4 overall and 1-1 in conference play.

Thank you for reading and please follow Southern Indiana Sports Network on social media by clicking the links below for more great Indiana sports coverage!!