Carson Francis, Contributor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
PIKETON — In the face of adversity, coach Craig Tackett and his Valley Indians responded with a statement.
Valley (4-2) suffered a heartbreaking overtime loss to Eastern on Dec. 20.
CREDIT: Cory Hall/SOSA
The team’s next game, a trip to West, was postponed due to snow. So, put simply, the Indians went into Tuesday’s game at Piketon with a chip on their shoulder.
Fueled by the trio of Jace Copley, George Arnett and Colt Buckle — a trio that combined to score 70 of the Indians’ 83 points — alongside a dominant defensive performance, Valley strolled back to Lucasville with an 83-39 victory over the Redstreaks.
“We were just anxious to get back into the rhythm of things,” Tackett said. “We were ready to play aggressive and play quick. We started looking at some things on the backside that opened up for us and I thought our kids adjusted and executed really well.”
Despite what the final score may suggest, the game’s opening quarter turned out to be a shootout.
After the Indians capped a 6-0 run with a steal-and-score from Arnett, Piketon (2-6) knocked down seven 3-point shots in the opening frame, four of which came from Declan Davis. And, following a bank-in 3 from Piketon’s Weston Bloss at the buzzer, Valley’s lead stood at 22-21 after the first eight minutes.
“In the first quarter, I thought we were stagnant on offense,” Tackett said. “We missed some open looks and we were standing around too much.”
Piketon’s momentum continued into the early moments of the second, and with 6:20 left in the half, the Redstreaks led 24-22.
That’s when Copley decided he’d seen enough.
“Jace stepped up in the second quarter and I don’t know that he missed,” Tackett said. “He hit some really tough shots and he’s an excellent player on both ends of the floor.”
PHOTOS: Images from Valley’s win over Piketon
Coming out of a timeout, Valley got its offense going again after Copley knocked down back-to-back triples. A pair of free throws capped Arnett’s personal 8-0 run and the Indians led 30-24 with 3:32 left in the half.
“We got the speed of our game going that we wanted to play at, and started knocking down shots”, Copley said after the game. “Tear apart that zone, find the open guy. We’ve been doing this for a long time and we had a lot of chemistry going.”
Later in the second, it was Arnett’s turn to connect from long range, hitting a pair of 3-pointers in the quarter. Copley knocked down two more triples, including one right before the halftime buzzer, giving Valley a 46-28 lead at the break.
“It was always just about hitting the open man for us,” Arnett said. “We have five guys on the floor to work with, so we can get the ball to anybody at any given time.”
The second half of the game was nothing but a continuation of the momentum created by Valley in the second quarter.
A suffocating defense led to turnovers and more opportunities to put points on the board.
Piketon had no answer for Copley, Arnett, and Buckle as Arnett knocked down another pair of triples to go along with Copley dropping 10 points of his own in the third. Buckle put up another six points, and Valley went into the game’s final quarter leading the Redstreaks by a 68-35 tally.
That was more than enough momentum for the Indians to put the finishing touches on a runaway win.
“We played with a lot of energy and pressured them a lot. We practice with a lot of energy,” Buckle said after the win. “We’ve played with each other for a long time and know what we can all do.”
Copley finished the game with 28 points, Arnett finished with 22 and Buckle tallied 20 for the Indians. It was the Indians’ second consecutive game scoring 80 points or more.
“I hope we look at the energy we brought tonight and what certain guys can do for us,” Tackett said. “Everybody’s buying into their role and understanding moving forward that if we play with a lot of energy and take it one day at a time, we can go a long way.”
Piketon looks to get back on track this Friday at Waverly. For the Indians, they look to continue buidling momentum as they host Adena that same evening.
“We take it one game at a time and look at every game like it’s the best game we have to play,” Copley said. “We can’t play down to the other team’s competition. It’s just like any other game for us.”
BOX SCORE
Valley: 22-24-22-15 — 83
Piketon: 21-7-7-4 — 39
Valley scoring: Copley 28, Arnett 22, Buckle 20, Stewart 4, Lute 3, Edwards 2, Nickel 2, Queen 2.
Piketon scoring: Davis 20, Lamerson 5, Armstrong 3, Bloss 3, J. Thacker 3, Guillon 2, Kelley 1, Legg 1, Roberts 1.
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