Valley Christian rains threes in win over Granite

PHILIPSBURG – “Sometimes you pick your poison and try to make them play hero ball and try to make kids make shots, and tonight they did.”

Granite Head Coach Dustin Keltner’s assessment of his team’s loss to Valley Christian could not have been more on point. The Prospectors took away Valley Christian’s inside game and opted to give them the outside, but the Eagles suddenly became three-point gurus on their way to a 58-55 win in Philipsburg Friday night.

The win drops the Prospectors to 5-3 on the year, which includes a forfeit loss from Lincoln in a game that would have been played tomorrow night.

Granite led 14-13 after one period, but trailed 29-25 with just seconds to go in the first half. That’s when a scrambling Granite team managed to get Brian Ward the ball with about five seconds on the clock. Ward escaped his defender to the top of the key where he launched a long three-pointer that banked its way in at the buzzer, leaving his team just a point shy at halftime, 29-28.

The two squads played even in the third 11-11, but the Eagles held fast in the fourth to secure the win.

“We took away those three players down on the box,” said Keltner of Valley’s post play that averages almost 51 points per game. “I think if you play a series with high school kids, and kids that aren’t scorers, you’re not going to get this kind of outcome very often. They’ve beat us twice now and we’ve been in it right up until the last minute. We just got finish those layups and hit a couple free throws.

“If we get a chance to play these guys again, I think the game result might be different.”

Without their post scoring the Eagles were forced to shoot from beyond the arc, where they hit a staggering 16 shots over the course of the game and scored all but 10 of their total points.

Ward finished with a game-high 22 for Granite with Cutler adding 15.

With their games Saturday already off the schedule, the Prospectors will take a week before hosting Victor next Friday night.

SCORING

Valley Christian – 13/16/11/18 – 58

Granite – 14/14/11/16 – 55

Valley Christian – Beaudin 14, Cox 7, Streit 9, Becker 11, Boone 11, Centifanto 3

Granite – Cutler 15, Metesh 7, Ward 22, Palen 1, Tallon 7, O’Donnell 4