Panthers Rebound for Win Over Galax in Group A, Division 1 Quarterfinals

DUBLIN, Va. – No pain, no gain?

Ask Twin Valley about that.

The Panthers suffered through a recent shooting slump, and suffered injuries to key players Friday night, but overcame both in a 77-61 win over Galax in the Group A, Division 1 quarterfinals Friday night at Pulaski County High School.

Hunter Simpson tossed in 21 points, Garrett Horne scored 20 and Josh Smith powered in 15 points for Twin Valley, which earned its second straight state semifinal appearance and its third trip to Richmond in four years.

A red-hot start helped the Panthers (22-5) snap out of their recent funk and gave them a working margin to help overcome Smith’s ankle sprain and Horne’s brief departure with an arm injury. Twin Valley hit seven of its first eight shots from the floor and scored 17 straight points to take a 17-2 lead.

It was a marked turnaround for a club that had struggled thus far through the post-season. Twin Valley squandered a 10-point lead against Appalachia in the Region D finals, and was determined to avoid the same fate on Friday.

“After the way we’ve been playing we were more focused this week in practice than we’ve ever been,” Simpson said. “We knew we had to get on them early, and stay on them. We had to keep attacking.”

Twin Valley built a 30-11 lead when Smith went down with a bad ankle sprain early in the second quarter. Smith eventually returned, but then Horne hurt his arm in the second half, and, like Smith, played through it. The Panthers maintained at least a 14-point lead and took a 39-22 advantage into the locker room at halftime.

Twin Valley opened the second half on a 9-2 run and opened up a 48-24 lead after a 3-pointer from senior Jacob St. Clair. Horne, Simpson and Smith hit key shots and the Panther lead was 54-33 by the 1:24 mark of the third period.

“We went back to the way we usually attack, we got the ball inside and it opened things for our three-point shooters,” said Horne, who scored 14 points in the first half.

Justin Hash scored 25 points to lead Galax (25-3). The sophomore point guard scored 10 points in the third period and an 8-2 run brought the Region C champions within 56-41 by the end of the quarter.

The Maroon Tide did get within 56-43 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, but Lucas Shortridge scored five points and pushed the margin back to 67-48 with three minutes remaining. The Panthers couldn’t relax, even with a 19-point lead, against a team that shot 60 percent in the Region C finals, and is known for its long-range prowess.

“The way [Galax] shoots the three, we never felt comfortable,” Simpson said. “We felt like we had to keep the pressure on them.”

Twin Valley turned the ball over 18 times, but most of them were in a couple of spurts late in each half. The Panthers handled the nearly constant diamond-and-one pressure, a key part of the Tide’s game, fairly well.

“We worked on breaking it all week in practice,” Horne said. “We moved some JV players up and had as many as ten defenders on the floor at one time. That helped prepare us for their traps.”

The Panthers held Scott Alouf, who scored 33 points in the Tide’s win over Eastern Montgomery in the Region C championship game, to a single field goal and just five points.
Galax was just 6-of-20 from 3-point range.

“We knew who their scorers were,” Twin Valley coach Brian Moore said. “We got a pretty good scouting report, and the kids did an excellent job, defensively.”

Twin Valley will face either Appalachia or Eastern Montgomery in the state semifinals Thursday at 5:00 p.m. at VCU’s Siegel Center.