Vandalia, Ohio — Anthony Parker who is in his second season at West Carrollton and former Middletown assistant Steve Pittman who is in his first season at Beavercreek squared off in a sectional semi-final matchup at Butler high school. Both coaches have turned around their programs in a short period of time as Beavercreek went 8-15 a year ago and is currently 14-9. West Carrollton went 1-22 two years ago and is now 17-6 and playing for a trip to the sectional final.

Junior guard Stanley Shrivers stole the ball from Yousef Saleh and went coast to coast to put the Pirates up early. Sam Walker then fought for an offensive board which he got and laid the ball in to put West Carrollton up 4-1. Yousef Saleh would respond for the Beavers getting a contact layup to go. Walker would get another bucket and then he setup Shrivers with an easy layup after getting another offensive rebound. Adam Duvall hit a three for Beavercreek to cut the deficit to 8-6. Shrivers would get a pair of transition layups and then West Carrollton senior Austin Jones would get a pair of buckets to put the Pirates up 18-9 at the end of the first.

Zahir Hopkins hit a three for the Pirates to open the second, but Beavercreek forward Adam Duvall responded with a three of his own. Shrivers then hit a contested three to extend the lead to 10. Then he dished a full-court pass to Austin Jones who finished a layup at the other end. Kalen McKinney finally got on the board for West Carrollton and then Shrivers finished a pair of contested layups. Mali Harris-Strayhorn would respond with an and-one for Beavercreek. The Beavers seemed to have some new momentum after 6’7″ big Gabe Phillips flushed home a dunk and then Adam Duvall hit a three to cut the deficit to single digits. Mali Harris-Strayhorn then hit a corner three to make it just a 36-31 halftime lead for West Carrollton.

Both teams traded scores to open the second half, Stanely Shrivers made a nice step-back move which left him open to drain the three. Sam Walker would hit another shot to put them up 11. Kalen McKinney then follow his missed shot and got the putback to put the Pirates up 51-38. Mali Harris-Strayhorn hit a three and then Sam Walker continued to work on the offensive glass getting the put-back to go as West Carrollton led 53-43 at the end of the third.

Beavercreek came into the fourth quarter not wanting their season to end. Duvall hit a three to start and Yousef Saleh got the transition layup to go to make it a 7 point game. Duvall then drove down the middle of the paint and made a layup with some contact but not enough to draw a foul. Then Saleh drove baseline and kicked it out to Duvall who drilled the corner three to make it just a 2 point game. Sam Walker got a layup on the other end but Duvall came down and hit a huge three to make it just a 1 point game. Then Duvall caused a West Carrollton turnover as Shrivers went diving into the stands to try and save the ball. Yousef Saleh would give the Beavers their first lead of the game as his up-and-under layup fell and Beavercreek took a 60-59 lead. Shrivers would get the lead right back for West Carrollton but he would go down as he dealt with cramps the entire second half. Down 1 and with the ball, West Carrollton senior Austin Jones dished it inside to Aigbokhai Kadari and the 6’7″ big man got a clutch and-one. His free-throw would be too strong so Beavercreek had the ball down 1. Yousef Saleh was fouled dribbling down the sideline but he missed the front-end of the one and one. Beavercreek was forced to foul Stanley Shrivers who would go to the line up 1 with 13.4 seconds left. Shrivers missed it and Mali Harris-Strayhorn rebounded it. He kicked it over to Saleh who dribbled down the court with his season and high school career on the line. His lost his handle on it and it went out-of-bounds. The officials ruled it was tipped so it stayed with Beavercreek. Saleh was the inbounder with 3.1 seconds left and the ball under their own hoop. He inbounded it to the clutch sophomore Adam Duvall who was then fouled hard by Shrivers. His first free-throw was good. His second free-throw rattled around before finding the bottom of the net with 1.2 seconds to go as Duvall got the go-ahead score. Shrivers’ full-court shot was off and the Beavers survived 63-62.

Adam Duvall finished with 25 points as his clutch plays down the stretch won them that game. Yousef Saleh had 14 points for Beavercreek as well. Stanley Shrivers had 24 points for West Carrollton and this game will be a tough one to swallow for the Pirates as their incredible season comes to an end. This is just the beginning though for Anthony Parker as he returns a good young core next season.

Beavercreek will move on to the sectional final against Springfield, who defeated Xenia the game before. That will be at Butler on Friday at 7 pm.