Good high school basketball teams can finish games strong, especially in the playoffs. That’s exactly what the Clark boys did in Saturday’s Class 4A Southern Region title game.

Clark led Legacy by double-digits nearly the entire game, but Longhorns had life after cutting the deficit to eight points early in the fourth quarter.

Then the Chargers put the game away.

A 14-0 run midway through the fourth quarter gave Clark plenty of breathing room. The Chargers, the Desert League’s No. 1 seed, went on to clam a 77-62 win over Legacy, the No. 1 seed from the Mountain League, to win the 4A Southern Region title Saturday at Foothill.

“(Legacy) came out and they gave us a good punch and they went on a little run in the third to cut it,” Clark coach Brent Rothman said. “We just stayed disciplined mentally. We stuck to the game plan and we focused on hitting singles instead of trying to hit home runs.”

Both teams advance to the 4A state tournament to face to-be-determined Northern teams at Spanish Springs High School in Sparks, which begins on Friday with the state semifinals.

Clark will be the South’s No. 1 seed and Legacy will be the South’s No. 2 seed in the four-team state tournament.

In last year’s 4A Southern Region tournament, Clark defeated Legacy 88-79 in overtime in a third-place game to get the South’s last spot in the state tournament. The Chargers lost to eventual state champion Sierra Vista in the state semifinals.

“Last year we were the wild card when we went to state, so it’s nice to have the top seed, but the job’s not finished,” Rothman said. “Today was just a good measuring stick. That’s a tough team. They compete. They didn’t quit. They defend at a high level.

“So it’s good to gain some confidence going up North, but our goal is to win the whole thing.”

Akron signee Devan Christion led Clark (20-5) with 22 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Guards Amir Wright scored 16 points and CJ Edwards added 14 points for the Chargers, who have won 13 straight games.

“It feels good,” Christion said. “We weren’t able to get it done last year so it feels good. I want to continue it. This is the first part. We want to get state. That’s the next thing.”

Clark started out fast and an alley-oop to Christion capped off an 8-0 run to help the Chargers hold a 21-11 lead after the first quarter. Christion scored 14 points in the first half to keep the Chargers ahead 41-28 at halftime.

Legacy (23-8), a night after erasing a 10-point second-half deficit to defeat Las Vegas High in the region semifinals on Friday, slowly chipped away at the deficit. The Longhorns used an 8-2 run at the start of the third quarter and drilled a pair of 3-pointers late in the quarter to stay close.

A Zayden Jeffries layup with 6:17 in the fourth quarter cut Clark’s lead to 60-52. Then the Chargers regained control, scoring 14 straight points by attacking the basket, highlighted by a one-handed dunk by the 6-foot-8 Christion off a turnover, to put the game away.

“They looked tired, we were both tired,” Christion said. “It was a battle, so we just took advantage of that. They were just a little slower so we kept pushing and left it all on the court and kept working.”

Christion got most of the attention, but the star senior forward credited his guards – led by Wright, Edwards, Sir Montgomery and Drake Afe – helping the offense flow and handle Legacy’s pressure defense.

“It’s huge,” Rothman said of his guards’ versatility. “Teams definitely key in on Devan and that’s because he’s a good player, but our guards are so steady and so solid. All four of them can pass, dribble and shoot, and that makes it difficult to game plan specifically for (Devan). I thought our guards did a really good job attacking the paint.”

“Sometimes, we have a tendency to settle for a long ball, and today we did a really good job getting downhill, getting to the rim, drawing contact and finishing.”

Jeffries led Legacy with 16 points and Jordyn Perdue added 14 points for the Longhorns, who had their 16-game winning streak snapped with the defeat.

Clark returned most of its team from last year’s that made a run to the state tournament. Rothman said the group’s unselfishness and maturity have helped the Chargers build on what they did last year and improve to be the top Southern team in 4A.

“I was just really proud through the four games this week (in the Southern Region tournament), we had guys who maybe had bad quarters, bad halves or even a bad previous game and they were all resilient and bounced back,” Rothman said.

“They didn’t let it affect them or affect the team,” Rothman added. “They just did what they could to make sure someone else had a good game, and with than, their game started to flow.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.

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