Magna Vista #3 versus Carroll County #2 for the right to qualify for the State Tournament.

Abingdon is 3:40 away from upsetting Lord Botetourt, leading 46-32.

We will be here start to finish, assisting Allen Worrell any way possible. Heck, we even went all Driving 🚗 Mrs. Daisy, bringing out fellow Homer up to his homeland.

The other Cavaliers has pulled within 10, 48-38

3:18 pm – Abingdon 52- 41 Final

Our countdown clock ⏰ is running 🏃‍♂️ now, under 38 minutes now.

3:25 pm –

Marion Harris is in the building and will be live streaming the game, start to finish on Facebook !

29:00 until tip

Our Student section

3:40 pm

10:00 out – both teams are heading back to the lockeroom for last minute strategy.

Remember you can see the game two ways, Facebook with Marion Harris or the Network.

4:02 – Jump Ball

5:35 (1), TO 6-8

1:55 (1), TO 10-15, Alyssa 2 Fouls

End1st – Down 18-15, Alyssa 3 Fouls

Time Out – 5:20, Tied 18-18

What a wild first half !

Lady 👩 Cavs lead 29-25 , but Alyssa Ervin played 16:00 minutes, including the final 3:21 with four fouls.

Coach Motley lost his balance while questioning a foul call. Good news is Coach is okay after the fall but he earned a Technical foul after landing on the court.

Getting ready to get back to it shortly.

Cavs open on 9-2 run 🏃‍♂️, lead 38-27 at TO 4:25

TO – 0:31.4 – (3) Cavs, 49-32 !!!!!

End of 3rd – Cavs 50-34 (21-9, 3rd quarter)!!!

8 more minutes

58-38, 309 left

Motley calls 📞 a TO – 1:15 on the clock ⏰, leading 60-40 !!!

Ervin27, Lam 11, Lyons 10

5:25 – Final, 62-42

Much more Later !

Late last night 🌙 I penned my thoughts on the Boys 👦 Basketball 🏀 season ending too soon but there’s a story that still needs to be written and we will begin it with Coach Barnes putting the recap into his own words.

“Tough way to end a magical season , I feel like we had a really good game plan, we needed a really good start of the game I felt like to set tone early, then we started getting cold and Cody got into foul trouble.

We knew we had to play zone with their size in the front court which with numbers we didn’t have much choice.

The number one kid for them, Pomrenke gave them a huge boost with 19 tonight to go along with the big 6-9 Katron with 22, we knew he would get points around the rim with his size and soft finish.

We shot the worst we have all year 34% from floor, 3-29 from 3pt line, and missed 12 free-throws for 43% by far worst of year shooting. We played hard just not enough baskets went to win this game, you gotta score if you gonna trade buckets and we didn’t.

Tough locker room , tough way to end season, I told them it in no way defines their season 21 wins only 3 losses, District Champs, Christmas tournament Champs , All Distrist player of year in Reitzel, Smoot 1st team Richardson 2nd all District and 2 1000 point scorers in a season. An excellent group of guys, my coaching staff is second to none, these seniors have set the bar high, which is fine. I like a challenge, the guys remaining and coming back will rise to it as well. Still building, still working to go furthereven next year.

Hats off too Abington, played hard and tough in a packed Cavalier house which speaks volumes of this group and their season. On too next season, before you know summer league will be here and it back to work!”

The past few years spent around the Boys 👦 Basketball program has been a genuine blessing. Going into the run with only Kris Richardson as my connection to the team, getting to know Coach Barnes, Coach Stockner and recently Coach Largen has led me to believe a few things.

1. Anthony Barnes presents a gruff exterior to many but once you can convince him that you also care about his Student Athletes then you get to see the true Coach Barnes.
2. Everyone involved with his program gives you the impression that they have bought into the concept 💡 100%.
3. The difference between Coaching a team and running a program can often be measured by the number of your Alumni that still want to be part of your organization. Looking at the training and the camps held show you that answer.
4. Coach gets Bonus points for having to deal with both Kris and myself 3 months a year. Alone, we bother people ( pretty sure our Wives will attest to that) but together we test people’s tolerance of us. Coach Barnes just wants to win a Ball Game for his players and if that takes listening to Kris, so be it.

Hey Coach, how many days until your first practice ?

Going to miss the GameDay interaction with the team and the parents of the players. They too seem to be ALL IN and are so proud of their Youngins

Final Note – 📝 If Anthony or Kris miss Greg Talley and I in the coming months they know they can find us right across the street. We’ll keep the Lights on for them!

https://theridgepodcast.com/podcast/52-jerry-carter-oneofus-care-writing-public-speaking-carroll-county-sports-report-community/

It seems like it was just five minutes ago that Head Coach Anthony Barnes and his team of believers were standing at 20-1, ready to take on all comers.

There had been plenty of discussion about the upcoming District Championship game with Floyd County about the concern of having an injury derail your Regional plans. The bulk of the talk was coming from the other side but it was our Davis Reitzel that ended up sprawled out on the Gymnasium floor early against Floyd County.

Fast Forward to the end of the game with the Buffaloes and the loss total had doubled from one to two. But the bigger fear was how would Reitzel heal up from a dislocated knee and could the team rally around each other long enough for the 6’3 Senior to return to action 🎬.

The news went from bad to worse when the Region pairings were announced and we landed in the #3-#6 opposite of Abingdon High School. The Falcons have a starting front court of 6’3, 6’6 and 6’9 and while Barnes has a team full of players that would run through a brick wall for him, the one thing they cannot do is grow six inches.

This group gave their Coach everything they had from start to finish but at the end of the day the fell short against a quality opponent that was literally head and shoulders taller than them.

In even in defeat the Cavaliers wouldn’t go quietly in the night. Exactly 4:00 remained in the third quarter when Reitzel entered the ball game for the first time. The team had trailed 40-27 before Bryce Smoot converted a lay-up. The mere presence of Reitzel on the floor lit up the Gym as a whole and the other four players on the court had an extra bounce in their step 🚶‍♂️.

Before the Falcons knew what hit them their lead was down to 40-38. Reitzel gave everything his knee would allow and the Cavs went down swinging but they couldn’t prevent the 6’9 Big Man from a series of offensive put backs and a 6’3 wingman from drilling a pair of corner 3-pointers.

The final margin was 67-52 and its worth mentioning that the team did leave 12 points at the free throw line (9/21) and they had their poorest shooting percentage from 3-point range (3-29). But those are stats and this story is about Heart ❤.

Heart ❤, as this is what the team played with and a number of us were enjoying the time around the team.

We all knew we would have to say Goodbye, just not yet.

Ethan Richardson, Paul Marshall and Jabin Talley will head across the street to the Tennis 🎾 Courts, Reitzel will head to the Soccer ⚽️ pitch and Brayden Smoot will head to the Track but we will all hold onto a Winter to Remember.

The story was magnificent, just the ending needed a little re-write ✍.