https://roanoke.com/sports/high-school/basketball/boys/bryce-smoot-carroll-county-floyd-county-high-school-basketball-virginia-timesland-three-rivers-district/article_2873372c-d378-11ef-9b01-372ef3101311.html

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….

  Let’s go back to the classic moment in A League of Their Own when a drunken Tom Hanks shouts out are you crying 😢, there’s No Crying in Baseball.

  We are now in our fifth year here in Carroll County which if you look back you will see 👀 that our arrival timed out to the coronation of the Carroll County Girls Mini-Dynasty.

  No, I won’t babble on about the great book that was written about that group. I will simply acknowledge the fact that the torch 🔦 that had been passed from the team that Kris Richardson started and Marc Motley finished was absolutely a done deal by the time I arrived. I do love the fact that it turns out that it was Marion Harris that “discovered” Alyssa Ervin.

  Much has been made about the fact that my efforts for the School and the Community comes without me having what folks would call a Dog 🐕 in this Fight. None of my Children nor Grandchildren will attend School here.

  When you try to have everyone being treated as equal, it complicates things even a bit more. Let’s take this full circle now in regards to what took place tonight in the Gymnasium with the mounted Mascot on the Wall

  Everything about tonight’s two games was near picture 📷 perfect. The atmosphere, the opponent and the style of play on both ends. Amazingly to me anyway, is the fact that I manage to remain as Neutral as possible when I covering these games. It’s so much easier to write ✍ about things from that standpoint.

  Late in the third quarter of the Varsity game it became obvious to me that this group of Student Athletes makes it tougher for me because unlike the Ladies, I didn’t miss out on the period when this group developed.

  I started paying attention to Cody Reece when he first started trying to become a Basketball player. It has been an absolute pleasure to watch a young man grow from someone that had little if any court presence turn himself into the impressive young Man that played for Coach Barnes tonight. Couldn’t wait to give him a hug when he came out of the locker room.

Next on that same list is the duo of Ethan Richardson and Isaiah Easter. One of my favorite stories over the past few years was the one about these two upstanding young Men having to exist in the shadows of their Big Sisters Jewelry Boxes ( Ashton and Kaylee both have two State Championship Rings 💍).

  Both of the young Men have been around the game for most of their lives but they both faced a serious challenge. Easter has a Basketball 🏀 IQ that is through the roof but he was going to have to sculpture his body during the off season to play at the Varsity level. That next Summer, Easter did that to a point where someone could have made a video 📹 about it.

  Richardson matches Easter in regards to Basketball IQ but he needed to grow comfortable in being a team leader. Put a ✔✅✔✅ mark in that box 📦 and its been a treat to watch him develop in that regard.

Before the game tonight I mentioned to Russell Smoot that if we were going to beat Floyd at Floyd that Bryce needed a big game. The Buffaloes felt their best shot at ending the Carroll County dream run 🏃‍♂️ would be to knock Bryce off his game with ball hawking defense.

  Smoot accepted the challenge and responded with the Best 32 minutes that I have seen him play at CCHS. His composure outweighed his season, if not career high 35 points. Bryce led by example in the face of a team effort to keep it from happening.

My favorite part about watching Brayden Smoot grow up is his unconditional ❤ Love for his Brother. Not sure which one of them was actually born first but I know how much they mean to each other and it shows everytime they are on the court.

The Last Dance 💃 as Barnes likes to call this season as his six Seniors ride off into the Sunset 🌇 currently sits at 11-0 and now contains a road victory after falling behind by double digits.

  The six that I mentioned are surrounded by another Six that includes Landon Puckett and Trace Reavis. Both players are trying hard to give Barnes the best minutes possible each time he calls their number.

  Nobody has a Crystal 🔮 Ball that will tell us just how special this season will become. Patrick County and Galax will be the next contestants in let’s be the team to derail the CCHS Hype Train 🚂🚆.

  Tonight a well Coached, hard nosed experienced team tried and led 26-16 after the first quarter. It would have been an acceptable defeat but the Cavaliers did their best Lee Corso – NOT SO FAST.

  Could not be prouder nor happier for this Coaching Staff, the Parents and the Players !

Still to come – Gamer for the Carroll News and a Banquet recap !

  The beauty of writing ✍ a story that is just meant to be for my site and the families of the team in the article is that I get to be more colorful with my words. Or a better way to say it – less Grown-up.

  The we haven’t been beat in a long time JV Cavaliers defeated their host, Floyd County Wednesday night 43-39. How did Jason Stockner and Ryan Largen manage to trip up the always tough Buffaloes 🤔?

  They simply dished out a large serving of what Waffle House regulars call Smothered and Covered. For three quarters, the Jr Cavs simply didn’t allow FCHS to breathe.

  The third quarter went in the favor of the Cavaliers, 14-5. This turned an 18-14 lead into a seemingly comfortable 32-19. The amazing thing about this group is how interchangeable the players are and just how dialed in they are into the game plan.

Four different players contributed to the 14 points in the 3rd but 10 players contributed to limiting FCHS to just 5. They just smothered and covered !!!

Blake Reed hit a short jump shot midway in the fourth quarter to push the advantage out to 38-25 and it turned out that the cushion would come in handy as the home team would make a late charge.

The lead was down to 41-39 until Dane Leonard sank a pair of Free Throws with 0:02.5 remaining to ice 🧊 the well deserved victory.

  Somewhere I hear the sound of great Coaches from days past saying offense is nice but defense wins Championships…

In a priceless moment late in the game Reed sacrificed his body by diving into the scorers table for a loose ball. Great hustle 👏 play and what made it extra special was it ended up being his Mother 👩that was there to catch him. Sam was keeping the scorebook and earned an assist on the play.

  Head Coach Jason Stockner should be getting home soon as he filled three roles tonight. Coached his team, helped Coach the Varsity and then drove the School Bus 🚌 back to the Hill !

  We will add his thoughts on the night 🌙,once he catches his breath. They will appear at the bottom of this story later.

Eight players dented the score sheet with Dane Leonard leading the way with 16 points. Leonard was joined in double figures by Colton Gravley with 11 points.

Carroll County returns to action 🎬 Friday night in Stuart versus Patrick County.

As Promised : Coach Stockner

“Our first game in 2025 was a very good win tonight! Floyd is always a tough place to play, they play hard and in your face defense. We did match their intensity and we created several turnovers with our defense. We need to execute better especially in the fourth quarter and finish our defensive possessions by limiting our opponent to one shot. Overall I’m happy we got a win in our opening district game despite not playing since December 30th and having limited practice time due to the weather. Go Cavs!”