Tomorrow will turn the Elite Eight into the Final Four as the State Quarterfinals take place

Carroll County will be one of four Region Champions hosting a game at a neighboring Gym to their Campus tomorrow night. Lakeland gets underway at 6pm and one hour later the three remaining tilts will get underway.

The tricky part about these contests is the assumption that the “Host” team should win the contest but there’s very little crossover competition during the regular season between the various Regions.

The Spotswood – Carroll County match up is the rare case of a regular season rematch. The Trailblazers and the Cavaliers got together a few weeks ago at a neutral site as part of the Rock the Ribbon event in Lexington. CCHS won the contest in a decisive fashion 67-34 back on January 28th.

The two teams have combined to win 3 out of the past 4 State Titles in Class 3 and this will be the third straight season that one of the teams has ended the post season run of the other team.

While Carroll County and Spotswood have a first hand knowledge of each other the contest between Lord Botetourt and Liberty Christian Academy will have sent the Coaching staffs in search of scouting reports. The two teams have a common opponent in the Cavaliers. LCHS fell to Carroll County by 30 on February 25th in the Regional final while LCA dropped a 34 point decision to the Cavs back on February 4th in Salem.

Liberty Christian Academy (20-5) has won six straight since the loss to Carroll County and Lord Botetourt (19-8) will be playing its first game since the Region defeat.

Another common opponent for the two teams is Franklin County. LBHS took two out of three from Franklin County while LCA won its only game versus Franklin County 42-35 back on January 3rd.

One more thing that gives hope to the fans of the Bot Cavaliers is the minimal Bus trip that will be required to head over to the University of Lynchburg.

Momentum is on the side of the Bulldogs as they are coming off an impressive victory over Spotswood on Saturday evening, 56-39. The victory was fueled in large part by an 18-0 closeout by LCA after falling behind 39-38 early in the final period.

Carroll County and Liberty Christian Academy are coming in as Region Champions but to move on to face one another they will need to fend off a quality opponent tomorrow night 🌙.