Successful start
- Updated: November 14, 2017
Donoho survives a furious finish to edge Pleasant Valley, giving Satcher his first varsity coaching victory; PV wins girls game
New Pleasant Valley coach Ryan Chambless plots strategy with his team during a timeout in the final three minutes of their tight season opener at Donoho.
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
Jeremy Satcher won’t soon forget his first win as a varsity basketball coach.
The new Donoho coach coaxed his team through a wild final four seconds and a potential game-winning 3-point attempt at the buzzer to win his varsity coaching debut, 64-62 over Pleasant Valley Tuesday night.
The game literally went down to the wire. The lead changed hands eight times in the fourth quarter, five times on alternating possessions in the final 3:15 and the teams endured a confusing double-foul scenario in the final four seconds.
The Falcons finally walked away with the win only after Jake Mobley’s 3-pointer from midcourt at the buzzer fell short.
“I didn’t think it was going to be like this, but it’s just basketball,” Satcher said. “All kinds of things happen on the first game.
“It’s good the way it ended so we get that experience early, how to finish games early. I’m just glad we got something like that out of the way so if we encounter it later on we know how to do it because of the first game.”
Actually, both head coaches were making their debuts with their teams. PV’s Ryan Chambless came over from Cleburne County during the first month of the school year.
It’s not like the Falcons didn’t know the way their coach was going to react in that end-game situation. Many of their players on the floor had played for Satcher as the junior high coach before he left season to serve an as assistant at Sacred Heart.
Will Nelson gave the Falcons a 63-61 lead when he converted a crisp pass from Jacob Lecroy into a layup with 11.2 seconds to play. PV’s Caden Turner then drove the lane at the other end and lost the ball with 3.9 seconds left. In the ensuing scramble, Turner picked up his fifth foul trying to recover the ball, Nelson was hit with a technical for his fifth and the teams marched to their respective free throw lines.
Because the foul on the floor occurred first, the Falcons shot first. Satcher initially sent Lecroy to the line for Nelson’s free throws and the former state Elks Free Throw Champion made one of the two shots to extend the lead.
But by rule, since the foul against Nelson was on the floor and not a technical, the player replacing the disqualified Nelson in the game had to go to the line and it was a correctable officiating error. Edwin Connell was Nelson’s replacement and he went to the line, ironically hitting one of the two shots as Lecroy did – his only point of the game – to make it 64-61.
Pleasant Valley still had the technical foul shots to shoot to close the gap. Mobley made the first one, but missed the second to leave it 64-62. The Raiders got the ball out of bounds at midcourt for their final shot of regulation and would have preferred to force the action inside but Mobley launched a 3-pointer from just inside the center stripe and it fell short.
“That’s just something we’ve got to work on, situational stuff,” Chambless said. “We hadn’t worked on a whole lot of situational stuff because we’ve been trying to learn everything. It’s just kind of hard to get everything in for this first game.”
Caden Turner did all he could to keep the Raiders in it. He scored 15 of his game-high 20 points in the second half and was 5-for-5 from the line in a nine-point fourth quarter. His bucket gave them a 59-56 lead with less than two minutes to play. Mobley’s free throw with 21.2 seconds left tied the game at 61.
Seth Ford led four Donoho double-figure scorers with 16 points; he hit four 3-pointers. Rod Elston had 15 points, Lecroy 12 and Nelson 10. Lecroy also had seven assists.
Hood, Parris lead Lady Raiders
Pleasant Valley won its season opener in the girls game 57-44 behind 18 points from Emma Hood and 15 from Mac Parris.
It wasn’’t a thing of beauty, but what did you expect with only two days of practice?
Parris found her range from behind the arc in the third quarter, hitting three 3-pointers to help PV extend a 10-point halftime lead to 18 entering the fourth quarter. Hood was rewarded for her pursuit of the ball at the top of the press with numerous snowbird layups.
“It’s kind of a reward for the person who chases the ball the most,” PV coach Brad Hood said. “It’s just kind of a gamble. You either give up an offensive rebound put back or you’re going to get an easy basket. We can’t just run one person in that spot, it’ll wear them down. Right now Emma is the only one who has that mentality to do be able to do it for 30-45 seconds at a time. It’s just constant motion; that’s hard to do.”
Anastasia O’Neill opened the game with back-to-back 3-pointers for Donoho and was 5-of-8 from behind the arc to finish the game with 17 points. Constance Hodges had 11 in the second half and finished with 13.
BOYS GAME
Donoho 64. Pleasant Valley 62
PLEASANT VALLEY (0-1) – Caden Turner 6 8-12 20, Jake Mobley 2 2-4 8, Dakota Herron 5 1-2 13, Connor Wolfe 1 0-0 2, Ethan Johnson 2 5-5 9, Austin Johnson 1 0-0 3, Jake Malsy 1 3-4 5, Drew Bonds 1 0-0 2, Colby Gaines 0 0-2 0. Totals 19 19-29 62.
DONOHO (1-0) – Seth Ford 5 2-2 16, Amari Smedley 3 0-0 2, Jacob Lecroy 6 0-0 12, JO O’Neill 1 0-0 2, Rod Elston 6 1-6 15, Reid Williamon 1 0-2 2, Will Nelson 5 0-0 10, Edwin Connell 0 1-2 1. Totals 27 4-12 64.
3-point goals: PV 5 (Mobley 2, Herron 2, A. Johnson); Donoho 6 (Ford 4, Elston 2). Technical fouls: Nelson. Fouled out: Turner, Williamon, Nelson. Total fouls: PV 16, Donoho 26. Officials: Odom, Hodges, Robinson.
GIRLS GAME
Pleasant Valley 57, Donoho 44
PLEASANT VALLEY (1-0) – Lindsey Pritchett 2 0-0 4, Mac Parris 5 1-2 15, Riley Haynes 0 2-4 2, Alisa Cash 0 0-0 0, Emma Dollar 0 0-0 0, Chandler Dorsett 1 1-3 3, Emma Hood 8 2-4 18, Karmyn Sparks 3 0-2 6, Brooke Perry 4 0-0 9. Totals 23 6-15 57.
DONOHO (0-1) – Victoria O’Neill 3 0-0 7, Anastasia O’Neill 6 0-0 17, Campbell Hagan 0 0-0 0, Jenna Stremmel 1 0-0 2, Constance Hodges 6 1-2 13, Savannah Frickey 1 0-2 2, Chloe Phillips 1 0-0 2, Lily Sherman 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 1-4 44.
Pleasant Valley 12 15 18 12 — 57
Donoho 11 6 10 17 — 44
3-point goals: PV 5 (Parris 4, Perry); Donoho 7 (V. O’Neill 2, A. O’Neill 5). Total fouls: PV 9, Donoho 13. Officials: Odom, Hodges, Robinson.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login