DUBLIN — Hidden Valley gave the Northside High School boys basketball team a good game Friday night. It knocked down a few 3-pointers early, put together a 7-0 run in the first quarter and led after eight minutes.
But it was only a matter of time before the two-time defending state champions handled business.
Aided by their triple threat, the top-seeded Vikings turned the tide quickly and downed the No. 5 Titans 78-55 in the Region 3D semifinals at Pulaski County High School, securing their place in another state tournament.
“(Hidden Valley brought) a lot of good ball-handlers, good shooters,” Northside head coach Bill Pope said. “What they brought is exactly what we thought they’d bring, is a team that over the last month has continued to improve, and they spread the floor and they really shoot the ball well. They know each other well. They’re a tough guard.”
Mykell Harvey finished with a game-high 26 points for the Vikings (24-1), while Cy Hardy followed with 23 points and freshman Brayden Ragland collected 19 points. All in all, they accounted for all but 10 of Northside’s scoring.
“It’s really just trusting each other,” Harvey said. “Just knowing where we want the ball and knowing that everything we’re trying to do is we’re trying to win, so when we see all the dunks, all the assists, the lobs. All that is us just trying to win.”
Each of the big three seemingly chose a different time to fill up the stat sheet. Ragland tallied 11 of his team’s first 21 points, including the first five of an 11-2 run in the second quarter that gave the Viking the lead. He had a game-leading 13 points through one half.
Hardy then took over in the third quarter, sinking a 3 to push Northside’s lead to double digits before scoring eight more in the period. Harvey closed things out in the fourth with 13 of his squad’s 21 points in the period.
“They did a great job distributing, so I thought they not only scored but they found some guys,” Pope said. “We just didn’t quite deliver until maybe down the stretch.”
Wyatt Clarke paced the Titans with (12-13) with 12 points.
“Part of our defense had to be our offense,” Pope said. “We had to put pressure on them defensively to help us out on our defensive end. I thought we kept putting pressure on the glass, on the rim, and I thought that helped us not only score points, but also on the other end.”
Northside will play No. 2 Carroll County (23-1) in Saturday’s Region 3D championship game back at Pulaski County High School. Its state quarterfinal game is slated for Tuesday.
Contact Matt Case at [email protected]
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