DIVISION IV BOYS: Maxwell’s 3-pointer saves Pahranagat Valley

Pahranagat Valley’s boys basketball team appeared to already have its state tournament ticket punched Friday, holding an 11-point lead over Adelson School with just more than three minutes left in its Division IV Southern League semifinal at Chaparral.

But less than three minutes later, Adelson School stormed all the way back to seize the lead.

That was before Tabor Maxwell saved the day for Pahranagat Valley.

Maxwell, a sophomore guard, drilled a 3-pointer from the right corner with 25 seconds left to send the Panthers to a 46-45 victory over the Lions and a spot in the Division IV state tournament next week.

Paharanagat Valley (15-6) will face Spring Mountain (21-4) in the Southern League championship at 12:45 p.m. Saturday at Spring Valley. Both teams advance to next Friday’s state semifinals.

Adelson, which took a 45-43 lead with 53 seconds left, missed two free throws with 36 seconds left before the Panthers grabbed the rebound.

Wade Leavitt then pushed the ball toward the basket and found a wide-open Maxwell.

“I saw Wade was driving, and they collapsed on him,” Maxwell said. “So I did what I do best, just come out to the corner and just shoot. That’s what I do.”

After Maxwell’s 3-pointer, Adelson tried to set for a last shot. But after a missed layup, there was a scramble for the loose ball as time expired.

Maxwell and Shawn Wadsworth each had 11 points to lead Pahranagat Valley.

Jacob Elharrar scored 11 points for Adelson (14-7), which rallied to tie the game on a 3-pointer by Rom Izkovich with 1:08 left.

Ben Elharrar sank two free throws to give Adelson its first lead of the second half with 53 seconds left.

“I think we just thought we had it,” Maxwell said. “There was a lot of time left for them to come back, and we got ahead of ourselves a little bit instead of just taking it one possession at a time.

“It feels amazing (to make state). First one in a long time - First one ever (for me). That’s just unbelievable.”

Spring Mountain 63, Beaver Dam 40 — Steve Jones scored 15 points to lead the Eagles to a win over the Diamondbacks in the other semifinal.

Spring Mountain (21-4), the defending region champion, put the game away with a 16-0 run to close out the third quarter to push its lead to 47-23.

Jones said after a slow start, the Eagles were focused on not letting the win slip through their fingers.

“We started catching the ball more. It was slippery. We just played more as a team and didn’t worry about individual stats,” Jones said. “We started off slow against this team last time, and again in this game.”

Carlos Sherrill had 14 points, and Eddy Castro scored 12 for Beaver Dam (11-6), which led 12-6 after the first quarter.

Jones said getting to state is just a preview of bigger things to come for Spring Mountain.

“I just think we are going to win it all,” Jones said. “I don’t think any team can match our speed, or our guards, and our post players are getting better every day.”