Head Coach Anthony Barnes had plenty of questions on Opening Night 🌙and his Cavaliers answered with a 64-57 victory over Pulaski County Friday night.

Photo 📷 Credit : Bill Gallimore

The Hill – The list of questions for the Boys Basketball team heading into their season opener Friday and his team answered enough of them to hold off a determined Pulaski County squad, 64-57.

The biggest question coming in was how would Seniors Brayden Smoot and Cody Reece handle the task of going from the 6th and 7th men in the rotation to trying to replace departed starters Davis Reitzel and Jabin Talley?

Brayden Smoot answered with 13 points, including 3 of 4 free throws in the closing minutes to hold the Cougars at bay. Reece finished the contest with eight points and flirted with a double – double.

The obvious follow up question was which player or players of the seven non-starters were going to be able to slide into the 7 or 8 player rotation ?

Landon Puckett was the first sub to enter the contest and the Senior added an early bucket. Trace Reavis and Jay Burnette (1 point) would follow, with each member of the trio logging quality minutes along the way.

Another big question at the top of the lineup was how would the three returning starters react to the task of carrying a greater scoring load. Seniors Bryce Smoot and Ethan Richardson along with Junior Isaiah Easter would each need to be willing to take more shots than before now that Reitzel is gone.

Richardson finished up with a team high 17 points, Easter with 12 points and Bryce Smoot totaled 11 points. This was a great start for a team that last year won by playing total team defense and not caring about which players scored the points.

The starters each scored at least 8 points and accounted for 61 of the 64 points but the minutes from the bench are going to be crucial as the year goes on.

After the final horn sounded, Barnes was well aware of what his team was up against in the Cougars.

“My thoughts was it was like a good heavy weight fight for 12 rounds , except this was for 4,” said Barnes. “They would land some good punches and we would slip and duck and visa versa, plus they shot the ball extremely well tonight. “

CCHS jumped out to an early lead and when Reece followed his own miss with a field goal the lead was 15-5. Pulaski County trimmed that double digit lead back to five by the end of the first quarter (19-14).

The teams would trade punches for the entirety of the second quarter and a Richardson 3-pointer allowed the Cavaliers to carry a 29-28 lead into the break.

Carroll County added three quick baskets to start the third quarter and suddenly it was a 9-0 run 🏃‍♂️ and a seven point lead. All five starters scored during the 20-15 frame and once again it appeared to be a safe lead.

PCHS scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter and suddenly the Cavaliers trailed 53-51 with just over four minutes remaining.

One play during the closeout spurt that sealed the victory came when Brayden Smoot grabbed a defensive rebound and quickly hit his brother with an outlet pass. Just as quickly, Bryce Smoot found Richardson in the corner and his second 3-pointer made it 58-53. The team defense limited the Cougars to just four points over the final four minutes to close out the non-district victory.

” Great minutes by Trace , Landon Puckett and Jay Burnett, added Barnes.. “We have pushed these guys hard, we are not quite where we want to be just yet but my coaching staff is second to none, we talked about it before the game, its last dance 💃 for this group and they gotta set their mark, make their stories and they did just that tonight, we withstood the punches and won the fight tonight. Go Cavs.”

Coach Barnes would go on and mention that if his team had finished stronger at the rim and shot a higher percentage from the Free Throw line his team would have won the game by a slightly higher margin.

But if they had indeed done those things, they would not have been able the last Big Question of the early season ? Can this group handle adversity in a big game ?

Alot of questions were answered Friday night but the beauty of High School Basketball is that there will be new questions by Monday

Pulaski County won the Junior Varsity game 61-48. Carroll County played the Cougars even up after the first quarter but could not overcome an 18-6 deficit.

Closing Thought from Coach :

” How about Brayden Smoot with his best high school game on both ends of the floor, I tell the guys if we play TEAM ball get stops we win.”

Both CCHS teams return to action 🎬 Monday night at Fort Chiswell.