Quick note 📝 – Allen Worrell will plug 🔌 in a Photo 📷 here.
The Hill – Once again Carroll County High School flirted with a perfect quarter and it was all the Cavaliers needed to defeat the James River Knights 61-40 Friday night on The Hill.
The latest victory moves the Cavaliers to 16-1 overall and 5-1 in the Three Rivers District as the team completed the first half of the league slate.
Carroll County ended the first quarter with an 18-11 lead following a Trace Reavis 3-pointer which set the stage for a remarkable second quarter of play.
Cody Reece started the party 🥳 with a quick basket 🧺 and Isaiah Easter followed the Big Man with a two pointer of his own to push it out to 22-11. Brayden Smoot stretched the run 🏃♂️ to 6-0 with a bucket and then it was Ethan Richardson on a hard cut to the hoop and a perfect feed from Reece. Bryce Smoot made it a perfect 10-0 and the Cavaliers had hit for the cycle 🚲. Five straight scores with one coming from each of the starters, truly a perfect 10.
Head Coach Anthony Barnes was enjoying the effort and was still smiling when Reece, Easter and then Brayden Smoot continued the rotation on the way to 16-0. It wasn’t until Reece scored again that the sharing of the basketball was interrupted and by the time JRHS scored by making a 3-pointer with 1:25 remaining in the first half, the run had reached 22-0. The final number for the eight minutes was 24-3 and the score was 42-14.
” Glad to rebound from tough home lose to Glenvar, we had a great practice Thursday and spent about 45 min along with my coaches and players in film room studying our lack of execution on offense and poor decision making at times , I think it really helped us to revisit,” said Barnes. ” I feel like 1st quarter we started out slow, settled too much at times and defensively were not getting after it.”
The fact that the Knights were limited to just 3 points let’s one know how strong the defensive effort was but the story is in the 24 points. Not even the high quarter for the year but this 24 points was about efficiency as the Cavaliers shot 12 of 14 from the floor for just under 90%.
Easter scored back to back baskets late in the third quarter to push the lead out to 61-18. Math will show you that James River scored the final 22 points of the game as Barnes was rewarding his reserves with extended playing time while James River was trapping on defense.
The final score will not reflect the quality of the middle two quarters of the game where Carroll County outscored the Knights 43-7.
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I challenged at end if 1st quarter for them to play harder and they did just that, I thought Isiah really had a well rounded night on both ends, huge momentum swing with turning up the heat defensively on them .
” I am proud of leadership from Senior Ethan Richardson on and off the floor. Bryce still struggling a bit scoring but the guys are shoring up around him,” Barnes added. ” The huge run put a smile on the coaches as transition and taking it straight to you is our game. Nice to get time for all the guys off bench, the work really hard in practice also.Nice way to go into the weekend and as always excited for Tuesday going to battle with Floyd. We will get up some shots Monday and prepare for another huge District match-up on our quest to try and repeat. LETS GO CAVS!”
The Varsity team was not alone in playing at peak capacity as Jason Stockner led his Junior Varsity team to a 57 – 18 victory in the opener, despite missing two rotation players due to illness.
Colton Gravley (16 points) and Dane Leonard (13 points) led the offense on a night 🌙 that 10 Cavaliers scored. The fact that the entire team was playing hard nose defense is reflected by the 18 points allowed.
Both team face another busy week as once again they will play three times in the continued effort to get the postponed games played.
Home games slated for the 4th and the 6th and then the rescheduled rematch at Glenvar on the 7th. Seven total games remaining in the regular season for both teams.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 