Panther Boys Edge Lake Mead

Pahranagat Valley had to withstand a barrage of fourth quarter three-pointers by Lake Mead to hold on for a 49-43 win over the Eagles Dec. 29 at Lake Mead.

It is only the fourth time in 10 years, 17 meetings, the Panthers have beaten the Eagles and the first time in the same period they have won the game at Lake Mead.

Trailing 37-20 as the fourth quarter began, the Eagles made a late run, unleashing a hail of three point shots, making six. But the Panthers were scoring consistently themselves, led by four men in double figures for the game.

Tabor Maxwell, Culen Highbe and Tyson Jorgensen each had 12 points for Pahranagat, and teammate Cody Williams scored 11.

Kaiaokumulani Madela led Lake Mead (4-7) with 15 points including four of the fourth quarter three-pointers. Shay Rutledge added 11 points for the Eagles,

Coach Mike Strong has said PVHS has been playing very good defense much of the recent games and they did in the first half against Lake Mead, holding them to just 12 points. The Eagles did even worse in the third quarter with only eight points, but they came back in a big way.

Strong said, ?We are having trouble putting together four full quarters and not letting teams get back into the game. We asked a few kids to play a lot of minutes. We?re still not in great shape. And sometimes we stop doing things well we had been doing well earlier, i.e., turn the ball over instead of taking care of it, missing some free throws, our hands down when they are shooting and not getting out on their shooters. You?ve got to understand where the shooters are and if they hit one they are probably going to do it again.?

In the first half Strong said the team played real good defense holding ?Lake Mead to just 12 points. On defensive pressure he said, ?I think we?re doing a fair job on keeping the ball in front of us, keeping the ball in the lane and getting deflections for turnovers. We have good size behind us if we get beat out in front, then run a matchup zone when necessary.?

Pahranagat Valley (13-0) begins league play tonight at Indian Springs and a non-league game at Virgin Valley on Saturday.

The Panthers beat Indian Springs 53-14 Dec. 9 at the Snake Pit Classic in Beaver Dam.

Alamo has only beaten Virgin Valley once in eight meetings since 2009. That was 53-51 in Alamo in 2012. The Bulldogs won last year?s game 57-41. All the others losses have been by an average of 13.8 points.