Springs Valley Community High School

With just under 50 seconds remaining in the Springs Valley boys’ basketball team’s Thursday-night bout with Evansville Harrison, the horn sounded and Max Pendley made his way to the bench. Springs Valley’s lone senior, Pendley was leaving the floor at The Nest for the final time and the crowd responded thusly, rising to its feet and applauding him for his efforts. He stopped to shake Springs Valley head coach Jonathon Bowles’ hand and receive a hug from the Blackhawks’ third-year leader, then made his way down the rest of the bench with high-fives, handshakes, and hugs. It was a moment he’d been working toward for a long time. At one time he thought he’d share it with classmates, with friends, and though that didn’t end up being the case he was still grateful for his journey through the program. “I made a lot of friends on this floor and I appreciate what they did for me,” Pendley said. “When he pulled me out and everybody was cheering I almost teared up. My final regular-season game, I don’t know what to say honestly. It was just very emotional.” Though Pendley was lost for words, his coach knew exactly what to say. Bowles was quick to praise the senior for the hard work, toughness, and leadership he’s provided the program during his career. “Max is the kind of person that we want to come out of this program. He does extremely well in the classroom, he’s a great person, and we have no doubt that he’s going to go have a successful life after high school,” Bowles said. “There aren’t many people who make it through by themselves, but he battled through it and stuck with basketball. He’s been a contributor for us in practice, he’s a great leader, and he’s just the type of guy that we want to come out of this program.” Shortly after Pendley left the floor, the game ended in an 80-51 win for Evansville Harrison, a very competitive Class 4A team. The Warriors, champions of the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference and winners in 12 of their last 13 games as they entered The Nest, provided quite the test for Springs Valley. With that in mind the Blackhawks were ultimately pretty happy with the effort that they put out on the floor, especially considering that they led 15-14 after the first quarter. “I thought we played well all night. The score doesn’t indicate how well we played, I think it shows how good they are. The first quarter I think we shocked them by coming out with a lot of energy,” Bowles said. “All in all, I’m pretty proud of the way we played tonight.” Larron Childers provided a bright spot for the Blackhawks in the loss. Harrison had a significant size advantage, but Childers was able to mitigate it with his strength down low and the effort he provided. He tied his career-high with 14 points and hit a pair of 3-pointers while doing so. It was the third time this season that he hit multiple threes and all three of those instances have come within the last month. “I had him all wrong. I thought he was just a post player, but he’s a guard. He’s an inside-out guy. He can do it all,” Bowles said. “We open up the gym five days a week at 7 a.m. and he’s been to a ton of them. Sometimes it’s just him, but he’s shown a little bit of leadership this week — he started bringing Jay Walls with him — and we need more of that.” Springs Valley (7-15, 3-3 PLAC) will now head to the postseason as State Tournament play gets underway next week. The Blackhawks will open sectional play on Wednesday, taking on Washington Catholic at Loogootee. Earlier this season, they defeated the Cardinals 60-26 in French Lick. “I’m very excited. Tonight we saw a lot of effort against a really good 4A team and we’re going to use this momentum against Washington Catholic,” Pendley said. “We’re going to take it one game at a time and we’re not going to step on the brakes. We’re going to try to go as far as we can.” EVANSVILLE HARRISON WARRIORS 80, SPRINGS VALLEY BLACKHAWKS 51 Evansville Harrison (16-6);14;23;16;27—80 Springs Valley (7-15);15;11;8;17—51