HENDERSON — Devan Christion took over the game in the second half, scoring 23 of his game-high 30 points after halftime as Clark defeated Palo Verde 67-51 in the Class 4A Southern Region semifinals on Friday at Foothill High School.
The victory sends the Chargers (19-5) to the state tournament for the first time since last season, when they fell in the same round. They will face Legacy for the region championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Foothill.
“My mindset coming into the third quarter was it’s time to kill,” Christion said. “I wanted to end the game. I just wanted to get it over with so we could get to the next one.”
The 6-foot-8 senior, who has committed to Akron, scored 13 points in the third quarter alone, hitting his first five shots of the period. His 3-pointer from the right wing with 3:37 left in the quarter pushed Clark’s lead to 38-29, and the Panthers never got closer than seven points after that.
“Devan all season has just been so consistent,” Clark coach Brent Rothman said. “We’ve been able to rely on him. That third quarter was huge.”
Christion also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. CJ Edwards added 12 points, all in the second half, including three 3-pointers. Amir Wright chipped in 11 points for the Chargers.
Clark’s defense keyed the win by focusing on Palo Verde’s leading scorer, Ethan Inocencio. The Chargers often sent a second defender at Inocencio, sometimes Christion, to force the ball out of his hands and then face-guarded him to prevent him from getting it back. Inocencio finished with a team-high 19 points but needed 23 shots to reach that total.
“He’s a fantastic player and we knew he was going to make shots,” Rothman said. “We wanted to make him work for every single catch, every single possession. Every shot he got had to be contested, had to be hard.”
Inocencio also had four rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocked shots for Palo Verde (18-8). Tavien Phoenix added 10 points and five rebounds.
“It feels great,” Christion said of securing a state berth. “We were in the same spot last year and we lost. So being here now, winning that game, it means so much.”
Legacy holds on
In the other semifinal, Legacy rallied from a 10-point deficit late in the third quarter to defeat Las Vegas High 69-67 and earn its own spot in the region final and state tournament.
An 11-2 run to open the fourth quarter gave the Longhorns a 54-53 lead. Jordyn Perdue’s layup with under 30 seconds left made it 68-65. Las Vegas’ Treajon Jernigan answered with a layup to cut the lead to 68-67 with 16 seconds remaining. Perdue then made 1 of 2 free throws with nine seconds left, and Jernigan’s potential game-tying shot at the buzzer hit the front rim and missed.
Perdue finished with 23 points for Legacy. Micah Cazar led all scorers with 24 points. Hunter Iverson had 23 points for Las Vegas.
