Having teams go on runs in a Basketball game is not uncommon but last night the Cavaliers defeated the Blacksburg Bruins 67-60 in large part because they got the last word.
Coach Barnes altered his starting lineup for the Senior Night festivities and it allowed the Bruins to go on the first run, 10-5. Once sparkplug Bryce Smoot entered the game the Cavaliers immediately went on a 17-2 run.
The explosion had plenty of highlights including a trio of 3-pointers from Davis Reitzel and one from Smoot but the showstopper was a Showtime Lakers fast break which ended with Senior Mario Meza Campbell finishing the play at the rim.
Fellow Senior Elijah Cox made a pair of Free Throws to push the lead out to 22-12 and everything seemed right in Cavalier Land.
Just as quickly the visitors closed out the first half on another run, this time outscoring CCHS 15-6 the remaining 5:30 of the first half.
16 minutes played and the score was 28-27 Cavaliers. Fortunately the third quarter went the way of the Cavaliers 23-17 with the highlight being a Reitzel dunk to push the lead back to seven. CCHS connected on five of their 12 3-pointers in the third with four different players hitting from downtown.
Blacksburg opened the final period on a 9-0 run to take the lead at 53. -51. Bryce answered with a mini-run of his own by connecting on 3-pointers separated by 36 seconds. Just like a high scoring football game when you here the announcer say whichever team gets the ball last will win.
Leading 57-56 the Cavaliers went on one final run of 9-0 which included four plays worth mentioning. Bryce opened the run 🏃♂️ by drilling his third Trifecta in just over two minutes and Cox followed it with a strong post move and bank shot. Bryce then steals the ball seconds later and hits Reitzel finished the great and finally Reitzel fires a Lazar pass to Cox for a Bunny 🐰.
Pretty sure that Blacksburg would have answered with one more run but their efforts were stopped at 2 points by the sound of the final horn.
The Cavaliers will remain hopeful of landing one more Home game on the Hill when the Regional match ups are announced later this week. But if it was the final home game for Elijah Cox, Mario Meza Campbell and Nathan Redd then the trio went out in style.
One thing we know for sure is the JV and the Varsity Boys will both play at Galax on Thursday night in a Non-District contest.
CCHS (67) – Davis Reitzel 20, Bryce Smoot 18, Elijah Cox 12, Ethan Richardson 10, Jabin Talley 5, Mario Meza Campbell 2
A.S.P.N on The Hill 