George Loureiro is an ASU student at the Cronkite School of Journalism assigned to cover Valley Christian for AZPreps365

Logan Phillips' patience paid off Saturday. The Valley Christian star, scoreless in the third quarter, exploded for 12 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter in a 61-49 victory over Pusch Ridge Christian Academy.

“I knew it would come eventually, but I'm not worried about the numbers as long as we get the win,” the Purdue Northwest commit said.

The win was Valley Christian's fifth in a row as the Trojans zero in on the top seed in the 3A state tournament.

The Trojans (14-1) started off slowly and trailed the Lions 16-14 after a rough first quarter in which they turned the ball over three times and missed half of their free throw opportunities.  

However, the Trojans came charging back with an 18-8 second quarter.

“We just weren't playing fast enough, we just needed to play faster, and better defense and we did that in the second quarter," coach Greg Haagsma said after Valley Christian forced five steals and had only one turnover in the quarter.  

Even with the big second quarter, the Lions didn't go away easily. Phillips was held to scoreless in the third quarter.

But Phillips came to life in the final quarter shooting 6 of 8 from the free-throw line. He shot 84% from the charity stripe for the game.  

Phillip's big fourth quarter performance couldn't have come at a better time The Lions climbed back and cut a once 11-point lead to just five with three minutes to play.  

The Trojans called a time out and shut down the Lions with the help of a handful of clutch free throws from Phillips.