TOWER CITY — Shenandoah Valley is currently one of the hottest teams in the Schuylkill League.
The Blue Devils picked the perfect time to get hot Tuesday night.
Joel Santana scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half as Shenandoah Valley finished the game on a 14-6 run to pull away for a 64-58 victory over Williams Valley in a Schuylkill League Division II-III boys’ crossover contest.
The game was back and forth all night and featured two ties and 11 lead changes. Cody Miller gave the Vikings their final advantage at 51-50 on a pull-up jumper with 3:59 left in the game.
Then the Blue Devils (8-8, 6-2 D-III) took over.
Santana gave Shenandoah Valley the lead for good after he was fouled on a drive and hit both free throws to make it 52-51. That started a 9-0 run to make it 59-51. Williams Valley (9-6, 5-3 D-II) cut the deficit to three with 44.7 seconds remaining, but the Blue Devils sealed the game from the foul line, hitting 5-of-8.
The victory was the sixth straight for the Blue Devils after they started the season 2-8, and kept them within two games of first-place Mahanoy Area (13-2, 8-0) for the division lead.
Shenandoah Valley, which doesn’t have a senior on the roster and started one junior and four sophomores Tuesday, needs one more league victory to guarantee itself a winning record in the league and qualify for the District
11 Class A playoffs.
“This is a huge league win on the road,” Blue Devils coach Robbie Miller said. “A game that at the beginning of this year a lot people inside our program and outside didn’t think we had no chance of winning. These young kids have really banded together, rather than falling apart, in the last six games and we’ve been on a heck of a streak. This is one of the biggest wins we’ve had in five years.”
Ian McCole added 16 points, eight rebounds and three steals for the Blue Devils, while Jermaine McNeil had 12 points. Santana also had seven assists and seven rebounds.
Nick Rodichok had a career-high 28 points to go along with eight rebounds for the Vikings, while Siul Sepulveda and Cody Miller had 13 points apiece. The loss was the second in the last four for Williams Valley, which dropped two games back of first-place Minersville (11-3, 7-1) in the division after the Miners’ 66-47 victory over Nativity on Tuesday.
The Blue Devils were 10-for-24 (42 percent) from 3-point land Tuesday. The outside shooting ability of Shenandoah Valley was a bad match-up for Williams Valley’s 2-3 zone and it forced them to go man-to-man in the fourth quarter.
“We spent a lot of energy and they took us out of what we do,” Vikings’ coach Denny Kasper said. “We went to man, which isn’t our thing right now because of only playing six guys. We were going to back to zone once we got the lead but I give them credit, they hit some shots.”
After Santana’s foul shots gave the Blue Devils the lead, Ricardo Chagolla hit a 3 from the top of the circle. Santana followed with a drive down the lane and then found Isaiah Alvarez for a layup with 1:15 left in the game to make it 59-51.
Rodichok got the Vikings back to within three after he hit two foul shots and then a 3-pointer from the wing on an out-of-bounds play to make it 59-56 with 44.7 second to go.
Matt Creasy got the Blue Devils’ advantage back up to 61-56 on their next possession, hitting both ends of a 1-and-1.
“Our ability to hang in there,” Miller said what was the key during Shenandoah Valley’s fourth quarter. “Earlier in the year, we would have had some turnovers and lost that game. But our maturity, and we have been forced to grow up quick, we really took care of the basketball and took good shots. We didn’t turn the ball over and did our best to play the best defense we could.”
The Blue Devils were 6-for-12 from the floor in the fourth quarter and turned the ball over just twice.
Game Summary
SHENANDOAH VALLEY (64) — Santana 7 4-4 19, McNeil 4 0-0 12, I. McCole 5 2-4 16, Alvarez 1 0-0 2, Creasy 0 4-7 4, Chagolla 3 0-0 7, Allegretta 0 0-0 0, Ryan 2 0-0 4. Totals 22 10-15 64.
WILLIAMS VALLEY (58) — Zimmerman 0 0-0 0, Wolfgang 1 0-0 2, Sepulvada 5 0-0 13, Rodichok 9 7-9 28, Mini 1 0-1 2, Miller 6 0-0 13. Totals 22 7-10 58.
SV (8-8, 6-2) 13 14 16 21 — 64 WV (9-6, 5-3) 10 14 14 20 — 58
3-point FGs: Santana, McNeil 4, I. Cole 4, Chagolla, Sepulvada 3, Rodichok 3, Miller
JV score: Shenandoah Valley 64-47