The Paint Valley Bearcats got their first win over Unioto in a decade, thanks to a Caden Grubb game winning drive to lift them past the Shermans Friday, 56-55.
Both teams had leads of several points in the contest and saw Unioto rally from a 54-49 deficit with a couple of minutes to play, taking a 55-54 lead on a Chance Smith base-line jumper with 5.9 seconds left in the game. Following a time-out, the Bearcats Caden Grubb went the length of the floor and drove past two Unioto defenders for the game winning shot.
Grubb ended up as Paint Valley's leading scorer with 13 points, followed by Hunter Hamlin's 12 points and 9 reounds, 11 points and 11 rebounds from Bryce Newland, 10 points and 10 rebounds from Judson Bevan, 7 points from Cordell Grubb and 2 from P.J. McAllister. The Cats were playing their first game without Cruz McFadden, who is lost for the remainder of the school year after undergoing "Tommy John Surgery", Friday.
Nine Shermans' players scored, led by Chance Smith's 19, 10 from Josh Lambert, 7 from Cade McKee, Cameron Debord with 6, 5 from Isaac Little,3 from Gabe McBee, 2 from both Josh Lambert and Gunnar Greenwalt and 1 from Aiden Loeffler.
Paint Valley shot 21/47 from the field for 45%- including 2/3 from the arc and added 11/17 at the foul line. Unioto was 20/47 from the field for 43%- including 7/17 from the arc and added 8/11 at the line.
The biggest key that jumps off the stat sheet is how Paint Valley won the rebounding battle 38-18, with 15 offensive boards. PV committed only 10 turnovers and Unioto had 11.
Score by quarters was 10-10, 24-21 Unioto at half, 41-32 Shermans after three, but Paint Valley was on top at the end 56-55.
Paint Valley improves to (6-6/8-9) while Unioto drops to (5-7/8-9).
Relive the exciting game on our WKKJ podcast link, found below...