Green Valley lands final playoff berth by routing Basic

Green Valley’s boys basketball team sent in 13 players before halftime Friday against Basic in a must-win play-in game at Valley High.

And by game’s end, all 15 players got off the bench as the Gators left no room for playoff doubt.

Xavier Jarvis scored 20 points to lead the Gators to an 85-48 rout of the Wolves. Green Valley (14-13) wrapped up the Southeast League’s final playoff berth.

“We told the kids to leave it all out on the floor and play like there’s no tomorrow because there wasn’t,” Gators coach Lorenzo Jarvis said. “I’m proud of them. Every guy that stepped on the floor, and we played everybody on our team tonight. Everybody left everything on the floor. That’s what we need.”

Jarvis, who scored 15 of his 20 points in the first half, also finished with five rebounds and four assists for the Gators, who led 46-22 at halftime after shooting 18 of 33 (54.5 percent) from the field.

“He’s a competitor,” Jarvis said of his son. “That’s the one thing I like about him. He’s going to compete no matter what happens in the game. That’s all I ask him to do, is to go out and battle. And he did it tonight. I’m very proud of him.”

Green Valley, which led by 41 points in the fourth quarter, finished 33 of 64 from the field, including 9-for-16 on 3-pointers.

“We do a lot of early morning shooting before school, so it’s finally paying off, ” Lorenzo Jarvis said. “I tell the kids, ‘You might not see it right away, but keep at it.’ Today it was one of those days where it paid off.”

Kelvin Omojola scored 14 points for Green Valley, and Romello Jones had 12 points and seven rebounds.

Robert Sutton led Basic with 21 points, 10 rebounds and four steals, and Jared Meacham had seven points and six rebounds for the Wolves (12-15).

Green Valley faces Las Vegas High (20-7), the Northeast League’s No. 1 seed, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“(Las) Vegas is a really good team,” Lorenzo Jarvis said. “I have a lot of respect for them, but we had a heck of a battle at our place when we played them this year, so it should be a fun atmosphere and fun game.”

Contact reporter Ashton Ferguson at aferguson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0430. Follow him on Twitter: @af_ferguson.