Big second quarter lifts Eagle Valley over Battle Mountain in rivalry boys basketball game

Ethan Hovey’s study hall shooting sessions are starting to pay off.

The junior guard — who puts up around 400 shots at least three times a week during his open period — drilled three 3-pointers and poured in 13 second-quarter points to propel Eagle Valley to a 58-37 victory over Battle Mountain on Thursday night in Edwards.

“Once he’s hot, he’s hot,” said teammate Malachi Barros, whose defensive prowess helped instigate the Devil’s 27-point second quarter outburst. “The effort on defense translated to offense for sure. I think when we get those steals and everyone else is playing well, it opens everything up.”

Eagle Valley led 13-4 after the first quarter. Barros and fellow ball hawk Tavin Shreeve pestered Battle Mountain’s backcourt, poking away passes to set up easy scoring opportunities. Hovey started out cold, but once he put in a few free throws, the rim started to look a lot bigger.

“I saw those shots go in, got in the flow and I got hot,” he said. Early in the second, Hovey knocked in a pair of transition triples, nailed a pull-up jumper and then converted on a kick-out as the visitors built a 40-18 advantage. Coach Zach Haglin said he trusts all his players to shoot from anywhere, but commended Hovey for not forcing things.

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“He lets the game come to him,” Haglin said.

After feeling his team had matched their rivals’ first-quarter energy, Battle Mountain coach Shawn Johnson admitted there was a little slippage in the second period.

“Second quarter, our rotations were a little slow — we weren’t quite picking up our men,” he said. “We gave them open looks and they’re a good shooting team.”

Barros and Shreeve added eight points apiece in the first half.

“We needed to move the ball a bit more,” Shreeve said. “We found it and that’s what got us up by 20.”

Beau Suman led the balanced Huskies scorecard with five first-half points. Johnson felt like the X’s and O’s were fine — as long as his squad stayed in system.

“I feel like sometimes when we get punched in the mouth, we kind of go out of it,” he explained. “That was the big halftime message.”

Eagle Valley forward Dan Anderson opened the second half with a one-handed dunk as the Devils continued to cause turnovers on defense, but the defending league champs were unable to capitalize on the other end.

“I felt like first half we came out with a lot of energy. We went in confident but nobody was overly cocky – I’m really proud of our team for that,” said Barros before admitting, “(The) second half was a little sloppy.”

Eagle Valley extended the lead to 28 points early in the fourth quarter, but the Huskies clawed back to within 20 with 3:25 to go. After Suman swished a late 3-pointer, he jawed back and forth with an Eagle Valley player while running back on defense — reminding the visitors that the game goes a full 32 minutes, no matter the score.

“Fourth quarter was our best quarter and I’m proud of that because we definitely could have put our heads down,” Johnson said. “They still wanted to fight, they still had pride and we’ll take that as a positive moving forward.”

The message going into a busy February — Battle Mountain (4-6) has 10 games in the next 23 days — is similar.

“Season isn’t over until we let it be over,” Johnson continued. “So we’re still trying to string together some wins.”

No. 7 Eagle Valley (12-3) heads to No. 12 Evergreen next Monday for a matchup of top-ranked 5A teams. The Cougars are a carbon copy of the Devils: an aggressive big man, fast guards and a sharpshooter.

“We match up really well with them,” Haglin said. “We need to refocus and use this as a way to move forward.”

For the hero of the night, looking ahead requires a little bit of appreciating the past.

“I was end of the bench JV last year — I got like no minutes,” Hovey said. “I just worked and worked all summer. … This is a huge breakout year.”