The Hill – Carroll County pushed their lead in the Three Rivers District Tuesday night by defeating the second place Alleghany Cougars, 70-55. CCHS (13-1, 5-0) now holds a lead of two plus games over Alleghany (9-4, 2-2) in their pursuit of another regular season title.

 The contest was played in front of a involved crowd and contained so many twists and turns that its tough to get to them all. The teams went back and forth over the opening quarter which ended with the Cavaliers leading 14-11. Alyssa Ervin would finish the contest with a game high 42 points, including 11 of the 14.

 The Cougars took control to start the second quarter by scoring eight straight points and with a 19-14 lead against a short handed Cavs team they were looking for a knock-out punch.

 Sarah Alderman (Flu) was at Home and Amie Delp was in street clothes and a sling, leaving Carroll County in a bind.

“Playing without Sarah out there was an adjustment for us,” said Head Coach Marc Motley. ” It showed us just how much she does for us.”

  Carroll County answered the 8-0 run with a 9-0 run of its own. Katie Lam drilled a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter while Ervin added 12 in the frame to carry the Cavaliers to the break with a 33-24 advantage.

 The third quarter was as give an take as it could be. Every time the Cavaliers looked to pull away the Cougars would find an answer. CCHS would win the quarter 17-15 with four different players contributing. The game had lived up to the billing of #1 vs #2 and the stage was set for a great finish.

Leading 64-51 with just under 3:00 remaining the Cavaliers went from short handed to really short handed after Ervin was whistled for her fifth foul. The 5’11 Senior and her 42 points would be sitting next to Motley for the remainder of the contest.

” I had confidence in the group I had out there to finish the game,” Motley added. ” They play against her in practice everyday and know what it takes.”

 CCHS would try to weather the storm with Lam, Madison Lyons and a quartet of Sophomores. What happened next was amazing as Lam drilled a 3-pointer in the first possession after Ervin sat down. In one shot the lead went to 67-51 and the magnitude of the shot was not lost on the veteran Coach.

” The shot not only lifted Katie, it allowed the younger players to take a breath and realize we were still going to be ok,” added Motley. ” Katie showed the Senior leadership we needed and she took us to the House.”

There was still just over two minutes to play against a team very capable of hitting 3-pointers and scoring in a hurry. Lam sank some free throws down the stretch and the team clamped down on the defensive end. Carroll County outscored the Cougars 6-4 after Ervin departed.

 ” Laiken Burnett was huge down the stretch for us,” said Motley. ” There’s no doubt that’s the best she has played for us this season.

 The team will play for a third consecutive night on Wednesday when they host Glenvar. The game will start at 5:30 with the Boys Varsity to follow.

The Junior Varsity continues to stack up victories, adding a convincing one Tuesday against Alleghany, 56-21.

Kayla Young lead the attack with 17 points and was joined in double figures by CC Mitchell with 14. The duo took turns as Young scored hers early and Mitchell scored all of her points in the second half.

Nine players scored and the defense was stifling in the second half, limiting the Cougars to just six points after the break.

 The JV team will also played a third straight game with Wednesdays contest being held at the Middle School versus Glenvar.

When I head into a Gymnasium at any level I don’t know what I will write about on that night. Last night 🌙 on The Hill was no different. I knew that the two best teams in the Three Rivers District would be playing and that it should be highly entertaining basketball 🏀. I was already smiling from watching Kayla Young in the first half and CC Mitchell’s impressive fourth quarter so the night was promising.

 I have been blessed with the amount of Women’s / Ladies / Girls Hoops that I covered over the decades. Doubly blessed with the individuals that I’ve witnessed play the game up close. Growing up in Tidewater, Virginia in the shadow of Old Dominion University I cut my teeth on the game watching Nancy Lieberman play for the Monarchs. What a great four years that turned out to be!

 Fast forward to getting to see Stewie play for Geno and then later much more upclose and personal when she was drafted by our Seattle Storm.

 But my favorite female athlete of all time came to Seattle as a 5’6 teenager and won me over during her time with the University of Washington Huskies. Kelsey Plum sits at the top of my Basketball totem pole for sure and I don’t see that ever changing. Circling back to the Gym last night and the efforts of Alyssa Ervin. I am a HUGE fan of this impressive young Lady but when you are spending every spare minute you have on a sight were you want every Student Athlete to be treated equally you can’t focus on anyone individual.

 Last night Ervin was once again putting on a clinic against the Cougars and went into the break with 23 points. Unlike other nights lately when the outcome wasn’t in doubt we were only leading 33-24. I was pretty sure that Ervin would get to play the full 32 minutes against the Cougars.

Back on February 25th, 2017 UW was set to host the Utah Utes in a game that the desperately needed to win. Plum was fifty some points from passing Jackie Styles as the All-Time scoring leader in NCAA Women’s Basketball history. Plum dropped 57 points that afternoon in leading the Huskies to a narrow 84-77 victory. Not one shot was taken that wasn’t needed and the margin of victory ballooned in the final seconds. Getting to watch her break the record and get us the win at the same time was incredible. At the same time someone not in the building that day would look at the box score and not understand what took place.

Ervin dropped another 11 in a somewhat quiet manner to push the number to 34 and I started doing the math. The score was 50-39 and Alleghany wasn’t going to go away. They would need to foul late and we were looking at school history. Ervin was set to hang Half a Hundy (50 points) and just like with Plum, her team was going to need everyone of them.

 Ervin was sitting at 42 points as the game headed into crunch time. The basket that took her to 42 was her most impressive of the night as she grabbed an airball and while in the air put up a shot with her back to the goal.

 I was down right giddy about what I was sure was about to happen but then the ref blew his whistle and called her fifth foul on her. Just like that, the Hollywood ending was gone.

 What followed was a great story in itself (written a few posts back) as Katie Lam took the baton from Ervin and as Coach Motley said – ” Katie took us to the House”.

  I will wrap this up by saying this about our Coach and his Coach on the floor. Tonight we will be hosting a very weak Glenvar team that is full of nice kids that simply aren’t very talented at Basketball. If Motley wanted to leave her in the game I’m pretty sure she would drop 80 without breaking a sweat.

 I love the fact that not going to happen because Motley wouldn’t let it happen.

 The old line about the person that could hold down Michael Jordan’s scoring was Dean Smith fits here. I love that part of who are Coach is.

 It’s kind of ironic that I will be the one doing the starting lineups tonight for the games because here’s my closing thought – if there was ever a night to not taunt a team its the Girls game with Glenvar. Show up and cheer your hearts out for an impressive group of young Ladies and then go at it for the Boys 👦 game afterwards.

 Miss Ervin – Thank you for the show over the last few years and here’s to going out in style !

 

42 is my Niece Aaliyah 💕…

Thank You so much !

 For a few years now I have been on a campaign concerning the viewpoint on the value of the Junior Varsity programs. I am clearly in the minority with the thought that they deserve equal attention.

Tonight / This morning I want to take a look inside of the season that Kayla Young is having on the Girls 👧 Basketball 🏀 team. My tendency is to stay away from statistics because if you preach equal across the board.

 Young comes out every night, puts her head down and plays Basketball as hard as she can. She is her teams leader despite her age and seems to have stamina to spare.

 Tonight against Alleghany she lead the team in scoring with 17 points and reached that number without seeing the court in the fourth quarter.

During the 48-20 victory at Glenvar she netted 16 points without the fourth quarter.

Sitting in front of me is a stack of examples that are similar as the two I just gave.

 Here’s a possible description – Basketball player, hard worker, speed, endurance, court sense, Coachable.

I am well aware of the number of folks that would say – its only JV Basketball and others will say that its just Girls basketball. I cannot change that mindset, nor do I want to burn energy (I don’t have the same amount as Kayla) trying to do so.

The #1 perk for funding your own site and spending countless hours of your own time is this – I get complete control of my topic. Tonight that topic is that Kayla Young is a well rounded Basketball 🏀 player at Carroll County High School 🏫!

 

Our Banquet is by far our biggest Day of our year and we are generally excited about holding it here this year.

 Four distinguished folks are going to be Celebrated but the only one that knows it is Coach Nester.

 Saturday March 23rd is our date 📅 and 4pm to 7pm is our window. Hagen Giles will be hosting us at Maples 🍁 Restaurant at the Olde Mill Resort.

 Nester is set to receive the Jay Neal Award for Lifetime Achievement. The other folks that will be acknowledged are not aware of it and the goal is to try and keep in that way.

When hearing the news today, Nester was immediately overwhelmed with the honor 🎖 but quickly turned his attention to Kris Richardson. Of course these two are Family 👪 and Kris has a long history of seeking revenge for things that happened a lifetime ago.

 There are a total of 88 🎟 tickets 🎟 to the event and they have been distributed. We ask that if any of them are going to go unused that they would be returned so we can redistributed to others that might be interested in attending.

Kevin Burress has signed on to be our muscle. Each speaker 🔊 will be allocated 5:00 minutes to speak and they reach their limit he will take care of Business… not sure about the rumor he will be wearing Big Green Gloves or not?

 Part of Rick’s responsibility is, just like the Masters Champion Dinner, is to pick the entire menu for the evening!

 We are extremely excited about the Day and the excitement will do nothing but get higher as we get closer.

 

Current status of the swim report…T-Mobile home internet is working as hard as it can to get (473 to be exact) pictures uploaded. 

It was a good night for the swim team against Lord Botetourt and William Byrd tonight in Daleville. We don’t have the official results yet, but there were some really great swims tonight. 

Katelyn Wheatley, still working her way back after surgery, broke through her 50 free time tonight for a new season best and she faced her old friend the 500 free – leaving with a new personal best and a drop of approximately nine seconds. 

Ethan Edwards swam a strong leg in the 400 free besting the same Byrd swimmer who edged Edwards out earlier in the n night in the 200 Free.

Ethan Richardson and Wyatt Ogle resumed their weekly battle of the 50 Free. Tonight’s win went to Richardson and Ogle went on to dominate the 100 Back. 

Brother and sister first year swimmers Nahi and Jarib Cruz looked good in the 50 Free tonight and we’re hoping you’ll see one or both for them add a second event this Friday at Wythe. 

The brothers Dalton made respectable appearances tonight, both slightly off their personal bests, but Bradley handily took first in 200 IM and 500 Free and Will, repping for CCMS, took on 100 Fly and 100 Back.

Bailey Shupe and Karmen Smith were both strong on the women’s side tonight. Smith earned a new PR in 100 Free.

More results when the scoresheets come in to coach Joi Ogle!

Thank You so, so much ! Will add photos 📷 as the night 🌙 becomes Morning 🌄