“Heading to Abingdon on this rainy morning. Preparations are complete, only thing left is to compete!”

“Always Forward, Never Outworked!”

The Bus pulled out at 6am. Safe Travels and Best of Luck down there!

 Carroll County Boys Basketball completed a regular season ending three games in three days by defeating Christiansburg 83-72 Friday night on The Hill.

The fourth quarter of the finale played out in a manner that is seldom seen. CCHS earned their 21-1 mark this season by simply wearing their opponent down but the Blue Deamons weren’t fading away. CHS pulled within 54-50 at the end of the third quarter.

 The fact that 51 combined points were scored over the last eight minutes is a story in itself but when you breakdown how it played out it defies logic. Carroll County put a stranglehold on CHS that would have made John Cena proud.

The mixture of in your face defense and run and gun offense created a run for the ages. When Ethan Richardson connected on a 3-pointer at 2:09 remaining it capped a 20-2 spurt. During that run, Davis Reitzel (30 points) became the 10th member of the Boys program to join the 1,000 point club.

Coach Anthony Barnes called a timeout for a lineup change with the lead at 74-52 with 129 seconds remaining. Christiansburg proceeded to bury SIX 3-pointers and a pair of free throws in the remaining time. The run reached 14-0 quickly and Barnes returned his starters to the contest. The lead was down to 74-66 but Reitzel would sink five of six free throws over the final minute to preserve the victory.

” What can I say but what a night to be a Cavalier, fought off a hard playing well coached team to end the regular season,” Barnes said. ” We took their punches and best shots and kept standing strong, we struggled keeping them out of the paint but made some adjustments at half and it effected them getting it inside , then the Cavalier train 🚆 started rolling down the tracks.”

 Wednesday night Bryce Smoot crossed the threshold of 1,000 points and the team clinched the Three Rivers District regular season Championship with a hard fought 61-55 victory. Thursday night was a great deal less stressful as the Cavaliers secured a second straight road victory in Stuart, 82-40 over Patrick County.

 Christiansburg was a late addition to the schedule after attempts to reschedule postponed games with both Galax and Fort Chiswell didn’t pan out. As it turns out, playing the Blue Deamons created a taste of post season basketball.

” It was a huge night for Davis Reitzel 30 pts 10 huge rebounds and the 10th guy in school history and 2 one this season to reach a 1,000,” Barnes added. ” What a statement made by the hard work thru the years by this group. Brayden Smoot had an excellent night knocking down 2 3’s and doing like he always does, non stop in your grill defensive, even took a shot to face along way. Tally had nice night with 9, and killer assists. Bryce with 15 quite points and Reece with cleanups at 8. Proud of my guys , 3 games in a row , along with being students as well. Unbelievable season which will be remembered for years, now in a week in a half it resets to win or go home, I feel like we are ready for challenge, hopefully up the road to the state !”

 The next step in the journey takes place Thursday on The Hill as the Cavaliers will now host the #2 team in the District in a one game showcase.

Regional play gets underway next Saturday but the Cavaliers will have a bye until the following Tuesday night. That contest will also take place on The Hill.

*** From here Coach will add his box 📦 score by way of Allen Worrell and the story will eventually make its way on-line and hopefully in the Newspaper 📰.

 

The Cavalier Train 🚆 has been running 🏃‍♂️ at a pretty high speed all season and last night 🌙 was a rememberable way to cap off the end of the regular season.

Davis Reitzel joined Bryce Smoot in the 1,000 point club (9th and 10th members on the Boys side) and Coach Barnes took the time to say Thank You to Resource Officer Chris Mabry and one other unexpecting supporter of his program.

 The team has achieved near perfection and will now get five days off until the District Championship showdown next Thursday on The Hill. The next step following that contest will also be at 🏡 on the following Tuesday.

 Coach will be in charge of keeping this group focused and we should focus on what they already accomplished in a manner that makes the Community proud !

 There’s still one more story to write ✍ and that’s the Game story. That should be finished shortly.

By : Homer McHomerson

The Hill - Head Coach Jason Stockner sent his squad out for their season finale Friday night 🌙 and the team responded with a Non-District victory over Christiansburg, 49-36.

Blake Reed, playing with a taped wrist to protect a sprain that came from landing awkwardly at Radford, came out on fire 🔥. Reed scored seven of his 15 points in the opening minutes as the Cavaliers raced out to a 9-0 run 🏃‍♂️. The visitors had a quick rebuttal for the initial run, trimming the Cavs lead down to 10-7 and 12-9 at the end of the first quarter.

Hayden Jackson (12 points) joined Reed in the scoring spurts as the duo teamed up for matching five point second quarters. This time the team defense went into lock down mode, limiting the Blue Demons to just four second quarter points. The Cavs took a 24-13 lead into the lockeroom.

Christiansburg opened up the second half with one more big push. They outscored CCHS 9-2 to pull within 33-27 at the end of the third quarter.

Carroll County answered one more time to put the game away, scoring the first seven points of the final period. Dane Leonard (15 points) did the heavy lifting this time, scoring seven of the teams 16 points down the stretch.

The team played an unfamiliar opponent and led the game wire to wire to close out its 2023-2024 season in grand fashion.

Coach Stockner :

” Great start tonight. Missed what looked like some makeable shots and turned the ball over to keep the game closer than I felt it should have been.

However we did respond with increased defensive intensity once Christiansburg cut our lead to six in the second half.

Very happy to get our 10th graders in the game in the fourth quarter so they could end their JV careers on the court. Awesome to end our year with a win!”

Christiansburg 9 4 14 9 –36

Carroll County 12 12 9 16 –49

Cavaliers (49) – Leonard 15, Reed 15, Jackson 12, Gravely 4, Collins 2, Phillips 1.

3-pointers (4) – Reed 3, Jackson.

Being its the final game of the season I’m going to attempt to scroll through the 8,000 photos 📷 on my phone in order to share some of the off court moments.

Congratulations 👏👏👏 on your season ! We appreciate 🙏 your efforts !

Six ➕ hours on Thursday and another four or five today with a group of folks that you didn’t know before can be uncomfortable but that wasn’t the case at all with the Maintenance Team that works for Mr. Steve Puckett.

From minute one until quitting time today the quality of this group shined.

 Once the score board project is complete is completed I’m not sure when or how are paths will cross again but I’m already looking forward to it!

 Going to add on some of the photos 📷 taken here in hopes of keeping them all in one place.

➕

➕

Looking forward to seeing the new score board hanging in Cavalier Park and every time I look out there I will remember time with 5 Stand Up Guys, 2 Electricians and 1 Big Dog 🐕.

 Thanks for everything Fellas !