Valley Christian, the 10th seed in the bracket, traveled down the road to seventh-seeded Lowellville and walked out of the gym with a 44-41 upset over the Rockets to begin their postseason.

“First year here. Haven’t been in Ohio’s playoff atmosphere. It is special,” Eagles coach Aaron Agresta said. “Especially on the road, nothing is comfortable on the road, ever.

“I’m super proud of them. They didn’t play perfect, but they played hard all the way through.”

Lowellville led 41-38 late in the fourth quarter, but the Eagles went on a 6-0 to finish the game — including a bank-shot layup and a pair of free throws by Gill. She finished the contest with a game-high 23 points.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Kristen Gill puts up a layup during a fast break situation in the second half. She had a game-high 23 points for the Eagles.

“I’m very happy.” Gill said “We wouldn’t be able to do it if it wasn’t for my teammates — staying focused, giving the ball to my teammates, getting open shots, passing the ball.”

Agresta felt DiAndra Tensley and Dean both stood out along with Gill.

“Kristen is a talented player, and we know that she’s going to get hers.” Agresta said. “The key is to get everybody involved. We try to have it not be one dominant player type of game, and that’s hard to do sometimes when you have a talented player.

“I think she did a pretty good job of giving the ball up when she had to and things like that.”

Valley Christian took an early 12-1 lead as Dezyrae Dean and Kristen Gill scored early and often. The Rockets wouldn’t score their first field goal of the game until the 2:21 mark in the first quarter, but Lowellville went on a 7-0 run going into the second quarter to cut the deficit down to 12-8.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes The Valley Christian bench reacts to a made shot during the second half.

The Rockets took their first lead of the game when Samantha Kelly hit a shot to give her team a 16-15 lead in the second. Samantha Moore had seven first-half points to give Lowellville a 27-20 lead going into the intermission.

Gill scored four quick points to help the Eagles go on a 6-0 run to start the third quarter, which cut the lead down to a single point. Both teams went back-and-fourth, but Valley Christian finally regained the lead after Dean made a shot in the opening moments of the fourth quarter.

Dean ended with 12 points for the Eagles, and Moore had a team-high 17 for the Rockets.

Lowellville ends their season with a record of 7-16. Rockets coach Lisa Modelski saluted the Eagles and felt that her team learned a lot this season.

“We got up by seven and couldn’t quite hang on,” she said. “That’s been our issue all year is coming out and playing four full quarters. Last week we were able to do that. Today we had some lapses.

“I’m very proud of our girls. We have a great core coming back, so I’m really excited to get back with our girls.”

The Rockets are losing a trio of seniors — Julianna Lellio, Marah Bellis and Gianna Williams.

Valley Christian (5-16) advances to play at second-seeded Western Reserve on Saturday at 1 p.m., in a sectional bracket final.

“We have some film, and we’ve scouted them a little bit.” Agresta said “We know that they have a 6-foot-3 center that they like to run their game around.

“They really have four other guards that could play with her as well. They have a couple good 3-pointer shooters, so they’re definitely talented and definitely going to be a challenge again.”