Panthers Come On Strong

For the better part of the basketball season Valley Christian School struggled to reach .500.

In the course of three games the Panthers have found themselves once again one of the Bi-County League’s final six teams.

First-year coach Tim Hildebrand pointed out several things that enabled Valley Christian to leap-frog Davenport into the playoffs with an upset victory over Sprague-Harrington and regular season-ending win against the Gorillas.

“Coming in my first year I was trying lots of different combinations,” said Hildebrand. “The whole year was a process of searching for guys to get the job done.”

Wednesday the team ousted Odessa in the first round of playoffs to reach the double-elimination portion of the league tournament.

“One thing that happened is we brought up freshman Jeremy Decker during the last three games. He’s been the point guard all the way through,” said Hildebrand. “Another thing, Aaron Asbury has just risen.”

Asbury scored 17 points against Sprague, 27 against Davenport and 15 more against Odessa. He said it is because he has been taking more shots.

“I’m just afraid to lose,” said Asbury. “Jeremy’s been carrying us most of the year and it’s time for me to do what I can.”

Sophomore guard Michael Spuler is the third-leading Panther scorer and junior guard Tim Teterud the defensive stopper. Sophomore Brian Spears has provided solid minutes at a post as first Panther substitute, enabling Sandin to go to a wing and giving them a taller lineup.

“The players began to understand their roles and for me as coach it was discovering their roles,” said first-year coach Tim Hildebrand. “We worked together on it.”

He hopes it translates into the school’s second-ever trip to the Northeast B District tournament next week.

, DataTimes