February 4th was the last time that the CCHS Girls faced another team, which meant for the past 17 days they only had each other to chase around a Gymnasium. This fact didn’t bode well for whichever team drew the Lady Cavaliers in the #1 vs #8/#9 Winner.

Staunton River drew the short straw after winning their play-in game last week and the score was 28-4 after the opening 8:00 minutes. Kalee Easter led a very balanced attack with a season high 25 points while fellow Senior Jaelyn Hagee flirted with a triple-double. Hagee finished with 16 points, 13 rebounds and 7 steals.

The next 6 scorers landed between 6 and 9 points for Coach Mark Motley in a contest that was over almost from the opening minutes. Ashton Richardson and Lauren Alley tallied 9 each with Alyssa Ervin adding 7. Curdy Gardner, Katie Lam and Madison Lyons scored six each with the final two points going to Bella Crotts.

Carroll County will return to its home floor on Thursday evening to host the winner of the #4 vs #5 contest at 6pm. Will see how quickly we can determine the next opponent for the Lady Cavaliers

Magna Vista would appear to be the opponent on Thursday.

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Both of the play-in games went to the road team:

#10 – Abingdon 38, #7 – Bassett 31

#9 – Staunton River 38, #8 – William Byrd 35

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31:44 on the countdown clock ⏰ as we are getting ready to play !

Will be back at Tip ! Should be 6pm

Tip @ 6:04

We’ve survived the opening 8:00 minutes, trailing by 11-7

Back on the Hill – Girls up 28-4 after the 1st quarter !

@ The Half – Cavaliers trail by 11. Encouraging part is that we are getting some great looks inside but a number of those opportunities bounced off the rim.

Defensively when we get back we are holding them in check but when they beat us back down the court we are having a tougher time defending them.

Marion has it 30-4 in the second quarter back home.

Marion has it as 52-9 @ the Half

Girls advance 85 -16

Boys fall short 73-48 but they chased it to the final buzzer and then some !

Ridgeway, VA – Last week two send offs occurred at Carroll County High School, one for the Swim 🏊‍♂️ Team and one for the Wrestling team. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend both and capture the moments the best way that I could.

In a send off you are escorting a team away from the school 🏫 in what’s guaranteed to be their final competition for the School year. Both the Swimmers and the Wrestling team were guaranteed to complete their season when they left CCHS last week.

Today there was another departure time (12:30) set for when Bus #35 was going to pull away from 100 Cavs Drive. The Boys 👦 Varsity Basketball 🏀 team was heading over to Dry Fork for a 6:00pm contest against the #2 Tunstall Trojans.

Knowing the departure time in advance I pondered ever so shortly as to making the drive 🚗 to the High School for another send-off????

The answer came quickly in that it would be doing a disservice to Coach Barnes and his squad to make a big deal out of them leaving school. In some way it felt like it would be surrendering on the team, to not believe that they could once again be loading a Bus on Thursday afternoon.

Plan B was to jump in front of them on their trip and create a moment on the side of the Highway. I hoped it helped ease the moment for these 11 young men and the Coaching Staff.

Now sitting in Ridgeway I am equally convinced that this is not the Last Supper for the 2022-2023 Boys team but just a nice meal before a Big Game.

If it does turn out to be a Last meal as a team then its well deserved 👏 as these young men have left it on the floor everytime out there this season.

Tapping into my favorite Indiana Jones scene where Harrison Ford stumbles across a pit full of snakes 🐍, I find myself facing the fear of having to play the Trojans over in Dry Fork tonight.

If you turn the calender back a few months one will see the path that Coach Cindy Edwards and her Volleyball 🏐 team followed. Complete the regular season, win a home game in Regional play and then head over to #2 Tunstall. The seedings of the Cavaliers are different for Volleyball 🏐 and Basketball 🏀 but the road to Dry Fork is exactly the same.

The atmosphere in the Gymnasium that night was as loud as any I’ve heard in a long time so there’s no reason to expect anything different from the home crowd tonight. The match that night went the distance (5 Sets) before the Cavaliers fell just short and had their remarkable season end..

Tonight will be the Cavaliers chance to extend their season and reach the Semi-final game to be played on Thursday night 🌙. Coach Barnes will have his team ready for the challenge, just as they have been all season long but the first four minutes of the contest will be crucial for the Cavs. The need to keep the Trojans within sight at the end of the first quarter is oh so important for this group to have a chance late in the game.

A team cannot win a game in the opening minutes but they can certainly create a hole too big to escape from. Know going in that the crowd will be against you and find a way to feed off of that fact.

Go across the Mountain ⛰ and play the Best game you can play tonight and also take the time to enjoy the moment !

The Girls Varsity Basketball team opens their defense of last years State Championship tonight at 6pm vs Staunton River High School 🏫. Sadly, part of their fanbase won’t be there to cheer them on as the Boys Basketball team will also be playing tonight at 6pm, 86 miles to the East.

I am not sure why the Regional games couldn’t be scheduled opposite each other to prevent this type of a scheduling conflict for parents, friends and other family members. Folks just shouldn’t have to choose one over the other on an important night.

At CCHS it gets even trickier for the Easter and the Richardson families as they have both a Son and a Daughter playing on the Varsity teams. Do you go with the fact that the Daughter’s are Seniors or do you flip a coin ?

You can let location decide – staying at Home versus making a trek to Dry Fork which includes a construction 🚧 zone at the ridge of Lovers Leap. Going to Dry Fork promises to be a late night 🌙 by the time you get back home 🏡.

The seeds for the game are the #1 – #8 in the Girls contest and #7 @ #2 on the Boys side. Do you let the competitive aspect of the game to decide 🤔 ???

The next option one could use in deciding is the probability that this could be the last game played in the careers of the 6 Ladies or 3 Men that are Seniors ????.

For some people it won’t be a hard decision at all while others are still choosing but whichever Gym you end up end, PLEASE cheer extra loudly to make up for your neighbors that want to be next to you but are in another location down the road.

Shame on you, Region D, shame on you….

Whether its Hillsville or Dry Fork we know thar its Go Cavs !!!