Springs Valley Community High School

With about six minutes left in Tuesday night’s contest between Springs Valley and Mitchell and a Blackhawk at the free-throw line, Deion Edwards went over to the Springs Valley bench. The Blackhawks were trailing big — they were down 51-31 at the end of the third quarter — and what Springs Valley coach Jonathon Bowles was about to tell Edwards would set the tone for the rest of the game. The third-year coach told his star sophomore that he wasn’t sure what was going to happen the rest of the way, but at the very least he wanted his team to continue fighting and use the remaining time to get better. Edwards took that with him back into the game and from that point the Blackhawks did get better. And better. And better. They got so much better over those final six minutes that, when the final buzzer sounded, they led 64-60. They’d come back in spectacular fashion to not only erase their deficit, but win the game after trailing all night. “I’m super proud. This is who we want to be, we want to fight every night no matter the outcome,” Bowles said. “We had a lot of guys step up tonight. We had Big Play (Evan) Brown — that’s what the football team calls him and maybe we’ll start calling him on the basketball court — come in off the bench and make some big plays, grab some big rebounds. “Keaton Pritchett came in and we got a kick out to him, we’ve been preaching to him to be aggressive and he knocked down a big three. Jay Walls made a big play. We challenged Mav Land defensively and he ended up on a big guy trying to post him up, he moved him out and the guy ends up missing. That’s just the way we want to be, fight every night.” Of the many Blackhawks who made an impact on the game, Edwards was the most visible. The sophomore led all scorers with 26 points, hitting nine of his 18 shots from the field and hitting each of his eight free-throw attempts. He did more than score though, leading the Blackhawks with eight rebounds and two assists while also recording two steals. He also got his hands dirty throughout the game, setting screen after screen and even taking a charge. It was the sort of performance Bowles was hoping to see. “He doesn’t say a whole lot, but I thought he led by the way he played. He did such a good job,” Bowles said. “They really started focusing everything on him, so we started using him to screen for Konner. Some guys would want the ball, but he knew that’s what he needed to do and because they were so focused on him, Konner was able to get downhill and score a little bit and we got some kick-out threes.” The comeback wasn’t a one-man show, however. Seven different Blackhawks scored during the game and 11 different Blackhawks found their way into the game because of the foul trouble that Springs Valley faced. The ‘Hawks feel like that depth is going to be one of their strengths this season . “We just kept on grabbing different guys off the bench and they were all giving us something. That’s big,” Bowles said. “We plugged in different guys and it just continued to go for us. That’s what we’re going to have to do. We feel like we have the best guys one through 12 a lot of nights and that’s a great thing about that bunch. They’re all friends, they all want to see each other be successful, and it really showed tonight.” The win was quite a start to the season for Springs Valley (1-0, 1-0 PLAC). The Blackhawks will get a break before returning to the floor on Friday, Dec. 2 to battle county rival Orleans which figures to be one of the more formidable teams in Class 1A this season. “It’s a heck of a nice welcome into Hoosier Hysteria: Big rival, PLAC matchup, coming back from down 20 points in the fourth quarter,” Bowles said. “I’m just super proud of our guys and our coaching staff. Everybody on that bench, there were never heads down. Maybe a little bit in that third quarter, but not for very long. They picked it right back up and just kept on fighting. We’ve got 12, 13 warriors out there.” SPRINGS VALLEY BLACKHAWKS 64, MITCHELL BLUEJACKETS 60 3P;AFG;FT;R;PF;Pts Land, g;0-4;0-4;0-0;0;1;0 Chase, g;1-3;5-10;8-11;3;3;19 Edwards, f;0-5;8-17;8-8;10;2;24 J. Hamilton, f;0-0;1-3;1-1;4;5;3 Cook, c;0-0;0-1;0-3;2;3;0 Walls;1-2;4-7;0-2;1;2;9 Brown;0-0;2-3;2-4;2;0;6 Pritchett;1-1;1-5;0-0;2;4;3 Childers;0-0;0-1;0-3;3;2;0 Pendley;0-0;0-0;0-0;0;0;0 Ke. Jones;0-0;0-0;0-0;0;0;0 Totals;3-15;21-51;19-32;27;22;64 Shooting;.200;.412;.594 Mitchell (0-1);12;15;24;9—60 Springs Valley (1-0);8;13;10;33—64 TO: Mitchell 18, Springs Valley 10.