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Southern stops Valley Christian’s last chance
Gallery
By Brooke Meenachan
STRUTHERS
With six seconds on the clock, Southern head coach Aaron Blatch had to make a decision: stay in a 1-3-1 zone or go man-to-man.
His decision paid off.
The Indians stuck to their zone offense with Jayse Sloan at the top.
The freshman, who wasn’t even going to play basketball this year, made at big stop for Southern.
Valley Christian couldn’t get a shot off against Sloan and time expired, giving the Indians a 52-50 win and a chance to play in the Division IV district final game against the winner of tonight’s McDonald-Sebring semifinal.
“He just made a play. I don’t know what they had drawn up, but if you can’t get past the first guy, it doesn’t really matter. And he really took care of that,” Blatch said.
Southern (6-16) was down 46-42 with 4:35 remaining when Jacob Joiner went to work.
He scored seven of the Indians’ final 10 points.
“We’ve got something that not a lot of teams have,” Blatch said. “He’s a true No. 1 guy. We need him to score. I think he can score with anybody in the area.”
But Joiner thought that was something he still had to prove.
“I found out I got second-team all-county and feel like I should have been first,” the junior said. “So I’ve just been going out there and showing that I should have been first team. I just go out there and play as hard as I can and the best that I can.”
Joiner finished with 28 points.
“I think he’s fearless,” said Valley Christian head coach Dolph Carroll. “He’ll go at you and keep coming at you. He had a great game. I’m not sure we defended him very well, but he did a great job when he had to.”
But Joiner gave Valley Christian the chance to tie the game up.
With 32.8 seconds left, Joiner fouled Elijah Anderson and sent him to the line in a one-and-one.
He missed the first foul shot and it was the Indians ball. But not for long.
Southern threw the ball in with 27.6 seconds on the clock. Valley Christian stepped up its defense and forced a jumpball and the possession arrow was in the Eagles’ favor.
But Valley Christian couldn’t convert and was forced to foul with 7.6 seconds remaining.
“You have to give them a ton of credit,” Carroll said. “They just kept coming at you and never quit. We had some breakdowns and a few free throws we could have made down the stretch. We just had a few opportunities that we missed.”
Southern has been in this situation before. It had trailed at the half in all three postseason matchups.
“This has been an unbelievable feeling,” Blatch said. “All three games have been similar. We haven’t really jumped out to the start that we want. I mean, we were a nervous wreck the first three, four possessions. But we just settled down.”
The Indians trailed 29-22 at the half.
“We didn’t go out there thinking we we’re going to lose,” Joiner said. “We haven’t done that in the playoffs yet and we’ve seen results.”
The Indians will play for a district crown for the first time in nearly 20 years. It will also be the third time Southern has made it to the final in school history. The Indians have never won.
“I hope we’re not going to be complacent. Winning sectionals is nice, but we really wanted the chance to do some damage here,” Blatch said. “I think if we have the type of guys that I think we have, we’re going to go and compete as hard as we can and see what happens against either team.”