Tonight I get to bust out my Math Skills as I try to count backwards from 39 to 0 !!!

Later today Marc Motley will have his team on the floor in the Gymnasium on The Hill to play the Floyd County Buffalo🐃es.

Alyssa Ervin was in the student section at the Boys 👦 Basketball game which tells me that she has shaken free from illness and will be ready to lace up her sneakers 👟 once again!

With home games both tonight and Friday night its inevitable that the Carroll County High School scoring record will change hands here in the next 72 hours. We want to once again pay homage to Erin Gibson for both setting the record and having it to herself for such an extended period of time.

The window of time that the passing of the torch 🔦 takes place is in between late in the third quarter tonight and the end of the first half on Friday night 🌙. Either way it will take place right where it should, in her Gymnasium on The Hill. It will happen in front of a large crowd either night with the Wednesday game being against Floyd County and Friday night being part of a Varsity twin bill.

Photo 📷 credit Velvet Leonard…

Floyd County is without a doubt the team that is most willing to play right at us and if they can stay close in the contest it will give Ervin a greater opportunity to play longer tonight. The health of the rest of the team as the recover from a lengthy combination of injuries and illness will fact in as well.

The Red Hot Junior Varsity team will open the show tonight at 5:30 pm with the Varsity Girls 👧 to follow roughly 20 minutes later.

Ladies & Gentlemen, we are on the cusp of Carroll County Hoops history. Its so close that you can almost feel it in the air. The level of excitement is why I’m awake ⏰ at 4am, so I can work on my countdown routine….

39, , 37,35,,33,,31,29, 27,,,25 – 22 (she just swished a 3-pointer)……..

Come out to The Hill tonight and count with me. But if you do please consider getting there early enough to cheer on our Junior Varsity because Kayla Young and Friends are playing really well as of late.

20, 17, 15, 14,13 (They fouled here), 11, 9, 6 (from deep again), 4, 2 and 00000000 !!!!!!!!!!

Today’s Player Profile spotlight shines on Jabin Michael Talley !

Assistant Coach Ryan Largen to the right of Jabin Talley.

Jabin Michael Talley

Hillsville, Virginia

Senior

Parents – Jessica Spangler & Greg Talley

Dream College to Play For – Virginia Tech

Favorite part of playing for Head Coach Anthony Barnes :

” Getting to be with your friends while playing a game I enjoy

Head Coach Anthony Barnes ;

“Fiery, competitive,been fun to Coach thru the years.”

Assistant Coaches :

Kris Richardson – “Jabin has always played hard. Small in stature but big in heart and desire. Great young man with a bright future. BTW, great tennis player too.”

Jason Stockner – “Jabin Talley is a fierce competitor! When I coached him in JV he improved tremendously as a player and leader. Now he’s a solid contributor on the offensive and defensive end. It’s impressive to watch Jabin’s maturation and how much he’s improved as player and young man the last few years.”

Jabin asked if he could have a bonus player speak on his behalf and being it was his Senior Night 🌙

Davis Reitzel – His mid-range floaters and the edge he plays defense with.

Ethan Richardson – He’s funny, likes to joke around and he’s very competitive

Brayden Smoot – Very positive and full of energy in addition to being a good friend.

Bryce Smoot – Jabin is trustworthy and capable of hitting a shot at any given time.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you Mr. Jabin Talley !

Tonight’s Column : Isaiah Easter flirted with Perfection tonight against Floyd County and amazing enough some of his teammates weren’t very far behind !

There are just a few times in all of Sports that someone can reach perfection. A bowler can roll a 300 game by stringing together 12 strikes and in Baseball ⚾️ a pitcher can string together 27 outs without allowing a base runner but those things happen few and far between.

Last night, on The Hill, super Soph Isaiah Easter flirted with playing a perfect basketball 🏀 game. Going back to the start of the contest against neighboring Floyd County, Easter was on the bench as it was Senior Night 🌙 and Head Coach Anthony Barnes needed a spot to insert Noah Manning into. Choosing the only Sophomore on your roster was the path of least resistance.

I’m not sure what was going through Easter’s mind while he was soaking in the opening minutes but he saw something in the Floyd County defense that he felt he could exploit.

The Buffaloes led 7-6 when Easter took over the contest. Seeing that he was being covered by someone who couldn’t handle his speed, Easter started driving hard to the basket every opportunity he had. By the end of the quarter Easter had scored nine points and the Cavaliers were leading 18-12.

The MOJO that Easter was displaying netted him seven more points in the second quarter to give him 16 at the break. Floyd made a switch on who was guarding him but that didn’t work either. Now the effort was spreading over to his teammates, especially Davis Reitzel. Reitzel was also too quick for Floyd and finished the half with 12 points, on his way to 18 on the night 🌙,

The Cavaliers dropped 29 points on a solid basketball 🏀 team in 8 minutes of game time. That would translate into 116 points if you could string four of them together.

Jabin Talley scored six in that frame including a circus 🎪 style and 1 after getting knocked off balance.

The contest was Bigger & Stronger versus Slick and Quick and tonight Bigger & Stronger never had a chance.

While most teams try to find away to slow our team down, the Buffaloes were happy to play run and gun along with us.

Coming out of the break Easter scored two more baskets to reach 20 but thats where the number landed because Head Coach Anthony Barnes spent the rest of the night rotating through his roster and it seemed everyone wanted to be like Easter.

Ethan Richardson took over in the third quarter and netted nine of his 14 points. Cody Reece continued his impressive play of late, finishing up with 11 points.

Four reached double figures while Bryce Smoot and Talley added eight points each. 12 played and nine landed in the score book and the final margin was 38 points. Again, its worth mentioning that FCHS is a solid basketball team.

90 points scored on a ridiculous 75% from the floor. No typo, 75% from the floor. Coach Barnes mentioned that Easter missed one shot on a putback attempt which prevented him from being “perfect” but trust me, Easter played a level that was electric and his game has reached another level.

Still to come – Game story & Player Profile on Jabin Talley !

Dane Leonard straight 🔥 up put on a show and he had plenty of help from his friends in the Cavaliers 60-55 home victory over Floyd County !

The Gravely Family 👪

By : Homer McHomerson

The Hill – Dane Leonard had it going on Tuesday night, finishing up with 23 points in the Cavaliers 60-55 Three Rivers District victory over Floyd County.

After the Cavaliers opened a 46-31 lead after Blake Reed (10 points) buried a 3-pointer right at the 4:00 mark. The Buffaloes refused to go away quietly, storming back to within 57-53 before Hayden Jackson (8 points) executed the perfect Block Out under the basket following a missed free throw.

All the momentum was on the side of the visitors at that point and a put back basket 🧺 would have made it a one possession game. So credit Jackson with a game saving Block out.

Going to insert some thoughts from Head Coach Jason Stockner :

“Big win tonight to complete the season sweep of Floyd. I felt we came out ready from the tip, didn’t execute the best but made some tough shots inside to keep it close. Built a lead in the second quarter thanks to our phenomenal defense! To hold Floyd to a single point in a quarter is awesome. We knew they wouldn’t go away and we made enough plays down the stretch to put the game out of reach. Specifically the box out that Hayden Jackson had on one of their missed foul shots won’t show up in the box score cause Dane Leonard secured the rebound, is a little thing that’s huge for our team. Very proud of all the guys on continuing to improve!!”

The sound you can’t here is me laughing about the fact that Coach referenced the same block out as me- great minds, I guess!

Stockner mentioned the defensive effort, especially in the second quarter, a period the Cavaliers won 14-1. The effort was stamped with an explanation point when Colton Gravely swished a 40 foot 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer.

Coach Ryan Largen shared his thoughts on the Cavaliers latest victory.

“

Thoughts on the Floyd game:

” I thought we started out well tonight by taking care of the basketball and applying pressure on defense. Our starting five really set the tone for us tonight. We were able to pressure them in the half court and create turnovers that lead to points for us offensively. I was happy with our energy in attacking the basket for good opportunities particularly in the second quarter. We came out in the third picking up were we left off and was able to extend the lead by a couple of points that paid off in the end. Give credit to Floyd for never quitting as they continued to play through and closed the margin in the Fourth quarter.
Dane Leonard had a great game tonight followed up with Blake Reed, Colton Gravley, Trace Reavis and Hayden Jackson. Those five came out ready to go from the tip and our players bought in. Kyle Bunn, Judah Collins, Landon Kinder, and Connor Reece played some pivotal minutes for us tonight. Overall as a whole team I felt we were ready to accept the challenge tonight, as we should be, and I’m proud of this group!
A great team win for our guys!
Back to work tomorrow to prepare for Patrick County Thursday night at their place!”

The starters accounted for all 60 points but as Largen pointed out, a number of players contributed in other ways.

Floyd County .. 13 1 11 30 – 55

Carroll County.. 9 14 13 24- 60

Check out the point total in the fourth quarter – 54 points. I wish I had an ESPN level research staff because I’m not sure how often that happens???

CCHS – Leonard 23, Gravely 13, Reed 10, Jackson 8, Reavis 6.

3-pointers - Reed 1, Jackson 1, Reavis 1, Gravely 1.

Carroll County will travel over to Patrick County Thursday afternoon.