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03/19/2015 12:00 AMThe Valley Regional boys’ basketball team rallied from a 20-point second-half deficit to win its Class S State Tournament semifinal game against the Sport & Medical Sciences Academy by the score of 60-58 at Sheehan High School on March 18.
Senior David Bradbury hit the game-winning shot with 17 seconds left to send the Warriors to the title bout against Sacred Heart at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 22 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville. 2
nd
-seeded SMSA finished at 22-4.
Valley was down 14-8 after one quarter, 32-13 at halftime, and drew to within 49-34 at the end of three quarters. The Warriors trailed by 10 with four minutes left, then cut it to 56-49 on Chris Jean-Pierre’s three-pointer. Valley made it 58-52 on another three by Jean-Pierre with 2:10 to play, after which Bradbury drained a deep three for a 58-55 game with just 1:30 remaining. Junior Nash Eppard then made a basket to cut it to 58-57. With 40 seconds left, Valley inbounded the ball and found Bradbury, who hit the triumphant trifecta in the corner in front of the Warriors’ bench.
Bradbury scored 24 points and had two steals; Jean-Pierre recorded yet another triple-double by scoring 13 to go with 10 rebounds, 10 assists, two blocks, and one steal; senior Hunter Linfesty had 14 points and five boards; and Eppard scored seven points with 11 rebounds and two steals.
The No. 6 seed Shoreline Conference champion Warriors improved to 22-5 and now get ready to face the top-seeded and unbeaten Hearts, who defeated Bloomfield 84-56 in their semifinal. Last year, the Warriors took a 65-56 loss to Sacred Heart in the Class S championship game.
Valley’s berth in the state final marks the fourth in program history. Along with last season’s appearance, the Warriors also beat Weston 52-45 for the Class M crown in 2013 and defeated Classical Magnet 70-46 for the Class S title in 2011.
Two days earlier, Valley upended Holy Cross out of Waterbury 70-58 in a Class S quarterfinal contest in Deep River. Valley trailed 14-12 after one quarter and led 29-27 at the half. The Warriors then outscored the 14
th
-seeded Crusaders (15-10) by a 22-12 margin for the third quarter and that proved the difference in the victory.
Senior captain Jean-Pierre scored 21 with 10 boards, seven assists, and five steals; Eppard had 17 points and eight rebounds; senior Evan Smith dropped in 12; Linfesty scored 12 to go with five boards and three steals; and Bradbury posted eight points, as well as 10 assists, six rebounds, and three steals. Smith made some key shots from the field and all five of his free throws to help Valley for the first half and senior captain Eppard netted all 17 of his points in the latter stanza.