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Photos by Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

The Patriots snapped a three-game losing streak.

Patrick Henry's Dequan Brown (left) puts up a shot over Hidden Valley's Greg Coots during the second quarter of Friday's game at the Holiday Hoopla tournament.

Hidden Valley's Zack Barrett voices his displeasure on a call made against him during the fourth quarter of Friday's game at the Holiday Hoopla tournament at the Salem Civic Center.

The Patrick Henry and Hidden Valley boys basketball teams both entered Friday's game looking for a rare win.

PH got that win. For Hidden Valley, however, the game brought the type of misfortune that has hardly been rare for the Titans this season -- a loss and an injured player.

Point guard Melvin Henderson scored 17 points to lead the Patriots to a 66-63 victory on the opening day of the Holiday Hoopla tournament at the Salem Civic Center.

The Patriots (3-6), who snapped a three-game losing streak, will face the Gar-Field in a semifinal at 7:30 p.m. today.

Henderson was glad to get the win, especially after having to hear the kids at school fret about the Patriots' record.

"We're trying to turn ourselves around," he said. "We played harder than they did."

The Titans (1-5), who suffered their fourth straight defeat, will meet Salem in a losers' bracket game at 4:30 p.m. today.

Hidden Valley, which trailed for the entire second half, lost 6-foot-3 senior forward Greg Coots to a sprained right ankle with 3:52 left in the third quarter. Titans coach Troy Wells said Coots, who had been sidelined by illness the previous two games, is day-to-day.

"He's our big inside presence, so we had to adjust," Titans forward Zack Barrett said.

The Titans have been doing plenty of adjusting this month.

Virginia Tech recruit Ben Boggs is sidelined for the season after suffering a broken leg in a game on Dec. 4.

Barrett played his first game Friday since suffering a cut to the back of his head in a game on Dec. 10. Barrett, who had missed two games, scored 23 points.

Another Titan, Tim Rowe, needed four stitches above his eyebrow this week after butting heads with a teammate in practice.

"It's kind of an adventure from day to day [of] who's going to be there for practice," coach Troy Wells said. "It seems like it's been one thing after another."

The Titans went on a 10-0 run to cut the Patriots' lead to 50-46 with 31 seconds left in the third quarter.

Barrett sank a jumper to cut the deficit to 65-63 with 46.4 seconds remaining. He was fouled on the play but missed the free throw.

Henderson missed two free throws with 39.3 seconds to go.

Hidden Valley's Ian Trampe missed a 3-pointer with about 10 seconds remaining. The Titans got the rebound, but Matt Aiken missed a 3-pointer with 5.6 seconds to go.

Henderson made one of two free throws with 2.8 seconds left. Hidden Valley's Chad Earhart missed a heave from beyond halfcourt at the buzzer.

"We were able to play well enough to finish," said PH coach Jack Esworthy, whose team hurt itself with turnovers in the second half. "We need to tighten up our end-of-game situations.

"We're trying to use this tournament as our last chance to start playing well before we head into district play. Our three goals [are] we want to outhustle you, we want to outrebound you and we want to take care of the ball. We did all three well for awhile. Taking care of the ball the last four minutes of the game has been our downfall."

Ronnie Thomas had 13 points for the Patriots. Andrew Morris scored 18 points for Hidden Valley.

PH was just 6-of-18 from the free-throw line, while Hidden Valley was only 14-of-25.

PATRICK HENRY (3-6)

Henderson 5 4-8 17, Thomas 6 0-0 13, Wilson 3 1-6 7, Hamlet 1 0-0 2, Green 1 0-0 2, Sayers 3 0-0 6, Porter 4 1-2 9, Brown 5 0-2 10. Totals 28 6-18 66.

HIDDEN VALLEY (1-5)

Trampe 2 0-0 5, Barrett 10 2-6 23, Coots 1 1-4 3, Earhart 2 4-4 8, Aiken 3 0-0 6, Morris 5 7-11 18. Totals 23 14-25 63.

Patrick Henry 21 15 16 14--66

Hidden Valley 15 11 20 17--63

3-point-goals -- PH (Henderson 3, Thomas), HV (Trampe, Barrett, Morris). Fouls -- PH 18, HV 15.