Fort Chiswell – Bryce Smoot scored a game high 19 points to lead a balanced attack for Head Coach Anthony Barnes as Carroll County cruised to a seventh straight victory to start the season, defeating Rural Retreat 76-38.
CCHS will have little time to celebrate the victory as the Cavaliers will face Radford Saturday night at 8:30 in the First Community Bank Christmas Tournament. The Bobcats needed double overtime to defeat Grayson County 41-30.
After a series of too close for comfort victories, Christmas break and the unexpected passing of CCHS Coach Tobler, Barnes welcomed the opportunity to turn the game over to his second unit shortly after the halftime break.
” At the end of game we talked about if we continue to play like we are with TEAM being first that they have a chance to win this back to back,” Barnes said.” ” “Sitting back thinking about we broke huddle down for Coach Tobbler I can just invision the grin on his face. On too the next one.”
There was a moment of silence held before the contest to honor Jeff Tobler as the funeral service was taking place just 19 miles down US-52. Both Barnes and Assistant Coach Kris Richardson had stopped by the service on the way up to the Fort to represent the team before the contest.
Once the opening tip took place it was off to the races 🏁 for the Cavaliers. The team put up matching 24 point efforts in each of the first two quarters to lead 48-19.
Brayden Smoot joined his brother in double figures with 12 points and Ethan Richardson (12 points) plus Cody Reece (10 points) made it a quartet of Cavaliers in double figures. Isaiah Easter added nine points to round out the starters, with each of the five playing roughly half of the game.
” I thought tonight we really played some team ball , we passed up a good shot for an even better shot from top to bottom which shows going in 19-48 at half. We shot a phenomenal 64% from field 38% from 3 point line,” added Barnes. “We had 4 guys in double figures, Bryce with game high 19, Brayden with 12, Richardson 12 and Reece with 10. We got quality minutes again from (Landon) Puckett, (Trace) Reavis continues to improve and (Jay) Burnett really played well running point for second group.At end of game we talked about if we continue to play like we are with TEAM being first that they have a chance to win this back to back. “
Puckett, Reavis and Burnette each took advantage of extended playing time by scoring four points each. Landon Phillips broke into the scorebook by sinking two second half free throws to round out the scoring for the Cavaliers.
Tonight there should be a rested Cavalier team playing a Three Rivers District foe in Radford, after the Bobcats played double overtime in their opener.
The Junior Varsity teams have their own eight team bracket in the event. Head Coach Jason Stockner led his team to an opening round 62-25 victory over Rural Retreat and will host Radford as well in the 2:15 time slot Saturday.
” We won our opening game of the Fort Chiswell Christmas tournament over Rural Retreat 62-25″,said Stockner. ” Our defense led to several easy baskets early and also got several layups from pushing the ball. We had 10 players score as well. Very good win today!”
The JV team also had 9 players score with Hayden Jackson leading the way with a season high 20 points. Colton Gravely joined Jackson in double figures with 13 points.
_______________________________________
That concludes the Game story. On a personal note 📝:
Thank You 🙏 to Mrs. Samantha Reed for her capturing the moment of silence and sharing it with us.
Thank You to Marion Harris for tracking the final two contests of the night 🌙 and sharing it with us.
Thank You to Bill Gallimore 🙏 for the photos 📷 that I will share later.
Thank You to Coach Rick Nester for all of your efforts and Class this week in regards to our handling of a painful setback.
Finally, Thank You 🙏 to the most understanding Wife that was with me every step of the way…
We will get back to our trip here shortly with the next stop ✋ being Houston.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 