By Chris Yow
Editor
TRUSSVILLE — Pinson Valley has been on a roll as of late. In fact, the Indians have won nine of their last 10 games.
Despite a slow start Friday night at Hewitt-Trussville, the Indians (17-10) didn’t let that hinder their momentum. Pinson Valley ended their regular season schedule with a 68-47 win at Bryant Bank Arena.
Obvious that it wasn’t the Huskies’ night offensively early, Pinson Valley took advantage. The Indians dropped 4-of-5 free throws and Orion Morris added five points in the first quarter to build a 13-5 lead. The Indians extended that advantage to 24-11 following a Morris 3-point bucket with just under five minutes to play in the second quarter.
“Orion had some injuries early in the season, but he’s really been able to help our team in this run,” Pinson Valley head coach Cedric Lane said. “When he plays well, he carries the team.”
Morris led all scorers with 22 points in the game.
Freshman phenom Colby Jones took a little time to find his rhythm, but once he did the game started to open up for the Indians.
“We try to get Colby as many open looks as we can. Thing about it is, he gets a lot of open looks he’s not taking,” Lane said of the Future 150 prospect. “We’d like to see him shoot the ball more from our side.”
Jones finished with 18 points.
Pinson Valley was able to control the tempo of the game, and that is one of the major factors in the success of the Indians.
“We like to play fast,” Lane said. “We had a couple of guys get into foul trouble that hurt us, but the fact we were able to make shot kind of camouflaged it.”
For Hewitt-Trussville, the shots just couldn’t find the bottom of the net consistently, and failed to take Pinson Valley out of their game.
“(Pinson) did a great job keeping the tempo the way they wanted it. That’s a credit to them. They played really hard tonight,” Huskies’ head coach Marcus Thomas said. “We struggled to hit shots tonight. I feel confident in our guys to bounce back.”
Harrison Stanley led the Huskies in scoring with 14 points, while Damon Harper added 10.
The Indians will wait on a coin toss Monday morning to determine the winner of the area with Clay-Chalkville. The momentum the Indians have carried late in the season, though, means Lane is less concerned.
“It means everything (to keep momentum),” Lane said. “Winning this game was huge because we’re going into the playoffs on a winning streak.”