Springs Valley Community High School

Friday night's game against Orange County rival Orleans presented an opportunity for the Springs Valley boys' basketball team in a couple of ways. First and foremost, it was a chance for the Blackhawks to get better much like every game is. Second, it was a chance for the Blackhawks to measure themselves against one of the best teams in the area. The Bulldogs — the prohibitive favorite in the Patoka Lake Athletic Conference and Sectional 63 — returned nearly every player from a team that went 17-8, won a share of the conference title, and sent Class 1A No. 3 Loogootee packing in its sectional opener last season. That sort of experience ultimately made the difference in the game. A huge first quarter for the Bulldogs would put Springs Valley at a disadvantage it would nearly come back from by the end of the third quarter, but ultimately the Blackhawks fell 61-48 after Orleans put together a second-half run to keep them at bay. “I thought we battled all night long, played pretty good defense. It was a very physical game,” Bowles said. “Anybody will tell you that Orleans is favored to win our sectional, all the media would tell you that and it is what it is, they’ve got every guy back and it shows. They don’t have very many seniors, but they’ve got varsity experience and I think that sparked their run. “We had a lot of positives tonight and there’s some stuff that we can get better at. You either win or you learn and we’re going to watch film on this and definitely get better from it.” One of those positives for the Blackhawks was their ability to pressure Orleans when it had the ball. Typically a very fundamental group, the Bulldogs gave the ball away 15 times as the Blackhawks flew around the floor on Friday. It wasn’t a perfect defensive performance by any means, but it did show some promise. “We turned them over a lot. There won’t be too many games Orleans plays (like that) and there hasn’t been as long as (Orleans) coach (Tom) Bradley’s been there — he does such a great job, his teams are always very fundamental,” Bowles said. “I thought we had their guards pretty uncomfortable all night long, but their guards are tough. When they’ve got the lead in the fourth quarter, they’re just a tough team to come back on.” What ultimately ended up costing the Blackhawks was a cavalcade of small mistakes, the kind that you just can’t make against top-tier competition. Allowing offensive rebounds on free throws, for example, can’t happen if you want to beat a good opponent. You typically can’t afford to have only four players applying defensive pressure either, since it leads to an easy pass that can muddle the entire group’s effort. There were just simple things that the Blackhawks have to improve on to take their game to the next level. “When you’re playing a really good team like Orleans is and well-coached teams, you can’t have any letdowns,” Bowles said. “We’ve got to get to where we have all five guys working together, getting stops together, and we’ll get there. We’ve got a lot of warriors and they battled tonight, they battled until the very end, and you want to have games where you have teaching moments. There will definitely be a lot of teaching moments from this one tonight.” Springs Valley (1-1, 1-1 PLAC) will try to bounce back against Washington Catholic on Saturday. As they do so, the Blackhawks will continue their mission to continually improve over the course of the season. “We just want to get better with every game. We talked about getting one percent better. Tonight was an opportunity and now it’s over,” Bowles said. “We’ve got to watch the film, see how we can get better, and come back tomorrow for another opportunity.” ORLEANS BULLDOGS 61 3P;AFG;FT;R;PF;Pts Allen, g;1-2;2-8;2-5;2;2;7 Jones;0-1;1-5;1-4;3;3;5 Crocker;1-3;1-4;0-0;2;0;3 Hall, f;1-3;7-11;8-11;8;2;23 Love, f;0-1;2-6;0-0;2;4;4 Alston, c;0-0;3-3;3-3;1;3;9 Graves;0-0;5-7;0-0;6;1;10 Totals;3-10;21-44;16-23;24;15;61 Shooting;.300;.477;.696 SPRINGS VALLEY BLACKHAWKS 00 3P;AFG;FT;R;PF;Pts Land, g;1-3;2-4;0-0;0;0;5 Chase, g;1-1;5-11;1-2;3;3;12 Edwards, f;0-4;4-15;4-6;8;3;12 Hamilton, f;0-0;0-2;0-0;2;4;0 Cook, c;0-0;3-3;1-1;3;3;7 Pritchett;0-0;3-3;0-0;1;0;6 Childers;1-1;1-5;2-4;2;4;5 Brown;0-0;0-0;1-2;0;0;1 Walls;0-1;0-2;0-1;1;3;0 Pendley;0-0;0-0;0-0;0;0;0 Totals;3-10;18-45;9-16;20;20;48 Shooting;.300;.400;.563 Orleans (2-0);18;14;13;16—61 Springs Valley (1-1);8;14;11;15—48 TO: Orleans 14, Springs Valley 12.