Safely inside the Cougars Den and we will begin with the Junior Varsity team, even though they will not be playing tonight. One of the risks to playing with a short roster is that you become prone to not having enough healthy players on a given night.
That is the case tonight for the Lady Cavaliers JV squad. Even though they can’t play tonight, we still want to acknowledge them and wish those who are ill a speedy recovery 🙏.
Aaliyah Hampton is one of the two healthy players and will suit up for the Varsity game.
6:30 is Tip Time and right now Patrick County is celebrating Senior Night for both Girls Basketball 🏀 and indoor track.
We will have quarter updates and at the end of the night 🌙, a game story…..
Please check ✔ back for the updates…
20:00 on the clock ⏰ so look for Tip around 6:42
End of 1st – Cavaliers trail 10-6
7:07 – Halftime score, Patrick County 27, Carroll County 11.
Lawrence Nesselrodt and I go back 17 years now and its time to start our latest N.A.I.A baseball ⚾️ season. This Friday and Saturday we will be down in Tennessee in hopes of getting four games played, including one against the #5 team in the Country.
This information will most likely only be relevant to folks here in that it means that I will be spending a significant amount of time up at Linda K Epling Stadium 🏟 in Beckley, West Virginia over the next three months.
NAIA Baseball ⚾️ is a unique animal and there’s someone here that is rather familiar with the ins and outs, it would be our Athletic Director Kevin DeHaven.
DeHaven played his College baseball at the NAIA level after graduating from Carroll County High School 🏫.
The first thing that jumps out is that the schedule runs from early February until the end of April, not quite Springtime and certainly not Summer.
Normally we don’t try to host a game until the end of February or early March because of the fact we are located in the mountains of West Virginia. This year we are slated to play at home 🏡 next weekend (four games) with a heavy dose of weather permitting attached to that series.
Johnson City, Tennessee will be plenty warm this weekend but Saturday will be a rainy day. Should be fun either way as once again we lace them up for the season opener for the 17th time together.
11:00 am – First Pitch on Friday, odd as it sounds to say on February 5th, we will try to play baseball ⚾️ here in just two days!
It’s time for the two Greatest words in all of Sports – PLAY BALLLawrence Nesselrodt and the Legendary Joe Goddard !
The other day Greg mentioned that there were two places that he always wanted to live, with one of them being Mayberry.
Lin has an early Doctors appointment here in Mount Airy and her Doc is in surgery so here we are at the Rusty Rooster 🐓 in Mayberry.
We appreciate the interaction with Greg so the beauty of having your own space means you can do what the Cool 😎 Kids might call a Shout Out. It feels that Greg gets some of what we are trying hard to accomplish and there’s plenty of room on the bandwagon !
Also want to say Thank You 🙏 to the nice Lady 👩 that I call Isaiah’s Mom!
Wednesday has our Girls playing over in Patrick County tonight. It was nice to cross paths with Natalie Burress last night 🌙 and for her to say she was feeling better ahead of their game tonight. Both the Varsity and JV have been battling illnesses.
If you are reading this up in Stuarts Draft
and you cross paths with Pappy Meade please wish him a Happy Birthday 🎂.
Marion Harris and Pappy !
Still hoping to locate the Swim 🏊♂️ results from last night 🌙 and will share them once we find them.
Until then, have yourself a Blessed Day !
Mr. DeHaven has added a note 📝 that the Junior Varsity game tonight has been canceled due to illness / injuries and will not be rescheduled.
Head Coach Anthony Barnes discusses strategy during an early timeout.
The Hill – Earlier this season Carroll County (17-1, 6-1) needed almost the entire 32 minutes and 35 points from Bryce Smoot to escape with a 12 point victory over Floyd County. Tuesday night they needed right at six minutes to reclaim first place in the Three Rivers District as they rolled to a lopsided 84-55 victory over the visiting Buffaloes.
The victory, coupled with Radford upsetting Glenvar 51-47, allowed the Cavaliers to flip flop the standings and with five league games remaining Head Coach Anthony Barnes has his team in control of their own destiny.
” Yesterday we went harder than we usually do before a game because I knew what was at stake on getting a win against Floyd,” said Barnes. ” We shot really well in practice and I knew if it happened in the game we would be just fine and we did. I usually share my thoughts with them before we come out to start. I let Ethan Richardson share what I said, you control tonight, you control what they can and can’t do. That this is our house! Do your job. Play team ball. Talk and box out(need to limit second shots better) play under control, stay under control. GET AFTER IT AND WIN.”
The opening spurt saw Reece lead the team to an unimaginable 23-4 lead by dropping nine of his 18 points during the run 🏃♂️. Floyd County ended the first quarter with a 3-pointer to trim the lead to 23-7 and with the advantage on the offensive glass there was hope of a comeback.
Floyd County answered back with a 7-0 spurt late in the second quarter to pull within 33-21 but that was as close as the visitors would get. Bryce Smoot(30 points) drilled a 3-pointer on the move and then added four more points at the close of the half to push the lead out to 41-23.
FCHS made one final run to pull within 46-32 but they had no answer to the Ethan Richardson portion of the show. While Isaiah Easter(15 points) played a solid game throughout, Richardson (16 points) chose to due the majority of his damage inside of 60 seconds.
The initial of the three consecutive 3-pointers was of the step back variety and the next two were both catch and shoots. The Cavaliers were firing 🔥 on all cylinders and a well coached team simply had no answer.
” I think the first quarter set the tone in our house, we had some foul trouble with Ethan and Cody, but Landon and Trace really shored us up, ” added Barnes. “Great TEAM WIN, four guys in double figures. The 3 3’s by Richardson sealed their fate. Held Farley and Harrington to 17 total , which I’m more proud of. Their destiny and fate is in front of them. Reece train not even 100 % drops 18 on them. Isaiah peaking at the right time, 21-24 from free-throw line ! 84 %, man this is going to be fun to watch these next 10 days. HOW ABOUT THAT CAVALIER TRAIN !”
Carroll County JV opened the night 🌙 and needed overtime to claim at a 58-55 victory of their Floyd County counterparts. Colton Gravley (20 points) led a well balanced attack as the Sophomore was joined in double figures by Hayden Jackson (11 points), Blake Reed (10 points) and Dane Leonard (10 points).
Both teams will return to action 🎬 Thursday night when they welcome Patrick County to The Hill. The program will celebrate Senior Night in between games.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 