FLOYD – Carroll County High School pushed its record to 11-0 and 1-0 in the Three Rivers District Wednesday night by rallying from an early deficit to defeat Floyd County (9-2) 78-66.
The Buffaloes had the Cavaliers on the ropes after four 3-point plays in the first quarter gave the home team a 26-16 advantage. Sometime during the break, Senior Bryce Smoot ducked into a phone booth and dawned his Cape. When the dust settled Bryce had scored a season high 35 points.
The opening minute of the second quarter set the stage. First possession when a floater dropped, then a steal and a jumper all from Bryce cut the deficit down to 26-20. Equally important was it served notice that the undefeated Cavaliers would not be quietly fading into the night.
CCHS won the second quarter 18-10 with Bryce accounting for 14 of the points. The final basket pulled the Cavaliers to within 36-34 at the half and set the stage for a dominant run to open the third quarter.
” Big win , well huge win . Big District win on the road against a well coached team in their building that plays very physical,” said Head Coach Anthony Barnes. ” I said early in the day we had to get after it from the tip and I felt like we did , just didn’t finish well at the rim and they knocked shots down, then onto the quarter and we hold them to 10, going into the half score 36-34. We used up about all our time going over keys to winning.”
Carroll County raced out of the lockeroom with an impressive 17-6 run to take a 51-42 lead. For all of the scoring that took place for Bryce Smoot it was a great feed to Isaiah Easter for a wide open 3-pointer that jump started the run. Easter, Brayden Smoot and Cody Reece each hit from behind the line during the pivotal stretch.
Floyd County took its turn at not going away quietly, pulling to within 53-49 at the end of the third quarter.
During the break, Barnes pleaded with his team to dig deep to give him eight for minutes. The Cavaliers response was 25 points in those eight minutes while limiting FCHS to just 17.
While Bryce was certainly the Pilot of the Airplane ✈ early on, he certainly had plenty of help as the starters came within 1 point of making it a clean sweep of double figure scoring.
” Four guys in
double figures lead by Bryce Smoot 35, Brayden with 11, Isiah with 13 and Reece Train with 9 and 14 big boards,” added Barnes. “.I told them the are reaping benefits from hard work thru the years and with us. I’m tough on them to push them too be better and want more. It’s an exciting time for my coaches which are former players and the program and the TEAM. LETS CONTINUE THE LAST DANCE , HOW ABOUT THEM CAVS !”
The Last Dance 💃 heads to its next stop ✋on Friday night when the Cavaliers make their annual trip over to Stuart for a District clash with Patrick County.
Carroll County JV opened the night with a hard fought 43-39 District victory. Dane Leonard led the way with 16 points and was joined in double figures by Colton Gravley with 11 points.
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Please check out the fun look at the JV game….
A.S.P.N on The Hill 