Pahranagat’s John Hansen goes after a loose ball in a recent game.
Starting with a 15-2 run by the team in the first quarter, Pahranagat Valley High School’s (PVHS) win over Beaver Dam (65-21) on Jan. 15 was never in doubt.
It was the second win of the league season. Another league game happens this Friday as PVHS hosts Beatty.
Preston Higbee led the way for Pahranagat with 20 points against the Diamondbacks. Stockton Maxwell and Kyler Martin each added nine points for Pahranagat Valley (7-9, 2-0).
Jorge Hermosillo led Beaver Dam (3-4, 1-1) with nine points.
Pahranagat used the inside game for their win. Their man-to-man defense proved quite effective at keeping Beaver Dam from scoring.
A look at the team shooting chart would probably show nearly 75 percent or more of the shots came from within five or six feet, from under the basket shots, lay-ins, drives to the basket down the lane, to nice backdoor layups to a player getting open underneath.
Coach Michael Strong said, “We have kind of reinvented ourselves of late and put a lot of emphasis and practice time on man-to-man defenses over the past couple of weeks, and I have felt we are getting a little bit better all the time, getting to the right spots to help get the rotations and keeping the ball in front of us without fouling, all of which has been a big key for us. So, I expect we will play a lot of man-to-man in our remaining league games.”
Strong has previously said, “Before you can run anything else, you’ve got to be able play, man, and it’s starting now to work for us.”
PVHS rotated the big men, Martin and Jamison Miller, in and out quite a bit and got good scoring from both. Martin had nine points and Miller had eight.
Pahranagat Valley opened league play Jan. 10 in Alamo, taking on Liberty Baptist and picked up a 47-22 win.
Stockton Maxwell supplied 16 points and nine rebounds to help lead the Panthers over the Knights.
Isbiel Riera had 10 points, and Martin grabbed 12 rebounds for Pahranagat Valley, which jumped out to a 24-11 halftime advantage.
Isai Valdez had 11 points and 13 rebounds to pace Liberty Baptist (2-7, 0-1).
It was a cold shooting night for Liberty as they didn’t score more than six points in any quarter and made only one 3-pointer.
Coach Michael Strong said, “We went back to square one defensively and played mostly man-to-man defense. We’ve been playing zone, but if you play zone, you have to be able to play man first. That was our biggest change, I put a lot of focus on that, trying to keep the ball in front of us.”
Riera had a good game underneath the basket helping out with the inside game and Kyler Martin had one of his best games of the season hauling in 12 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Jan. 12, Panthers played another non-league game at Virgin Valley and lost a heartbreaker as the Bulldogs Will Barnum hit a game- winning 3-pointer as time expired to lift Virgin Valley to a 41-40 win.
Maxwell had 20 points and Martin added 10 points for the Panthers.
