Writing ✍ about the Junior Varsity Boys Basketball 🏀 is just fun for me and thats in part to the Coaches and how hard the roster plays ▶️ for Coach Stockner and Coach Largen.

Tonight when I walked into the Gymnasium I noticed that Dane Leonard was not in uniform. Dane told me that we was dealing with a bum ankle injury and would miss the game and possibly the next game at Glenvar.

My mind immediately went to Thor because before Dane changed his hair style even reminded me of the Marvel Super Hero. It helped that he plays the game of Basketball 🏀 in the same manner as the Hero, which is Fearless.

The next question I asked Thor was who was worthy of wielding his mighty Hammer 🔨 ?

Knowing that Hayden Jackson is Ironman in this story and Colton Gravley is Spider-Man 🕷, it begged to question what player would step up and play the role of Captain America ????

The answer became obvious, it was Blake Reed and he did it in style. Sadly, if you’re not a fan of the Marvel Universe then none of that will mean anything to you. If you fit into that category I will shorten it for you – Carroll County completed its season sweep of Patrick County tonight by a score of 63-29.

Reed scored seven of his points in one spurt near the end of the first half. Two steals ➕ an And 1 capped a 23-5 second quarter that made the halftime score 46-14. The remaining 14 minutes of action 🎬 was basically a stand still as the Cavaliers won the second half 17-15 as Coach was able to play his entire roster minus Thor and Will Motley who was also unavailable.

Coach Stockner checked in with his thoughts on the lopsided victory…

” Excellent team win tonight! I felt we came out flat defensively in the first quarter. We had given up 9 points and Patrick Co called a timeout so I challenged the guys to turn up their intensity. The result was 0 points for the rest of the first and only 5 for the entire second quarter that we surrendered to Patrick. That is domination on the defensive end. Offensively we were just as dominant as well, scoring 23 points in both the first AND second quarters. We took care of the ball and we shared it with our teammates. 11 of the 13 players scored. Very gratifying win. Tomorrow we have a rematch with Glenvar and I feel like we are ready. Go Cavs!”

Patrick County… 9   5.  10.  5 – 29

Carroll County….23 23  11  6 – 63

Our book 📖 is above and it shows that Captain America finished up with a game high 18 points, Spiderman added 13 and Ironman joined them in double figures with 11 points.

As Coach stated eight more players dented the scorebook and because I am not limited in space I can add the picture of the book so everyone can see their name!

54 miles until the Tennessee Welcome Center 🙏, Godwilling and there I will write ✍ the Varsity gamer…

Junior Varsity recap will take place at first Rest Area and the Varsity gamer at the Tennessee Welcome Center !

Our Cavaliers played ball with a purpose tonight and the JV game will include a Marvel Universe reference !

5:38 – 1st TO at 1:32, Cavs up 16-9!

5:55 pm – We have reached the break with a score of Carroll County 46, Patrick County 14.

6:16 – end of 3rd – Cavs 57 -24

7:05 – Will double back to fill in the gaps

7 :21 – End of 1st Quarter, Cavaliers 17 – 10…

7:35 – Halftime score, Carroll County 43-18…

7:58 – End of 3rd Quarter, Cavs 64-28!

8:10 – Final Score – Cavs 73 – 32…..

Stories to follow later….

Great Night 🌙 to be a Cavalier !!!

The worry that enters into a Head Coach and players minds when a team opens their season with an extended undefeated run 🏃‍♂️ is how will the team respond when they taste defeat for the first time ?

Back on January 29th, Carroll County hosted Glenvar in game sixteen and entered the night at 15-0. The Highlanders left town that night with a 63-60 victory, ending the perfect season and knocking the Cavaliers out of first place at the same time.

Two nights later the team hosted James River on Hall of Fame night. The team responded by overwhelming the Knights right out of the gate. All five starters rotated baskets during a 10-0 run that was part of a larger stretch twice that size in route to building a 40 point lead.

James River kept playing until the end and cut the lead to the final score of 61-40. But that took place against a team that currently sits in last place and might not win a District game this season. Four days later Floyd County came to The Hill with a chance to pull even with the Cavaliers, so we could see 👀 just how much bounce back CCHS was capable of against a team playing with their regular season on the line.

Carroll County High School played a game for the ages against the Buffaloes and they did so as a TEAM, a complete one, from start to finish. Brayden Smoot led a defensive attack that made life uncomfortable for FCHS across the 32 minutes.

Cody Reece shook off the effects of missing time with the Flu to score 18 points and battle two Big Men every minute he was on the floor.

Landon Puckett and Trace Reavis provided quality minutes behind Reece and they were a vital part of fending off a brief second half charge. Charging Buffaloes were scary back in the Old West but Tuesday night 🌙 they just hit a brick wall.

Bryce Smoot tallied a ” quiet” 30 points as he simply wore down the players trying hard to guard 💂‍♂️ him. Folks were caught off guard themselves when the number 30 showed up in the box 📦 score.

Ethan Richardson finished with 16 points and it stuck out that 9 of them took place inside of a 60 second window of the third quarter when the Senior made three consecutive 3-pointers from the corner.

  It seems that there was one other player that had something to do with the outcome. Junior Isaiah Easter was playing with a level of confidence that comes from spending your basketball life as a guard and then hitting a growth spurt that takes you from playing the point to playing the #4 spot.

Easter quietly, if that’s possible, worked his way to a Triple- Double as the Junior added 15 rebounds and 12 assists to his 15 points. Easter also stole the ball enough that he could have ended up on the Cana Police blotter.

  The team is getting ready to have another emotional night here as the Program honors 🎖 the Senior Class of six on Senior Night. The Cavaliers are set to welcome Patrick County to town and the Junior Varsity team gets everything underway at 5:30. The celebration will include the Cheerleaders and the Swim 🏊‍♂️ team members and will take place in between games.

The one remaining thing left for the team to accomplish is for Athletic Director Kevin DeHaven to have to open up the top set of bleachers to hold the crowd.

To recap, the Varsity is 17-1 and playing at a pretty high level. The Junior Varsity is enjoying a great year as well. We will be saying Thank You 🙏 to Senior Class members from a multitude of programs. We will have song 🎵 and dance 💃 and Pizza 🍕 Inn Pizza.

  Consider yourself officially invited to the Party 🥳 on The Hill, starting at 5:30 because you don’t want to miss out on Jason Stockner and Ryan Largen coach up our Future !

Coach Howard Mayo talks with his team during a first half timeout.

Stuart – The word Light is one that has many different meanings and played a large part in Carroll County’s 50-27 setback at Patrick County Wednesday night.

  The one thing that the Lady 👩 Cavaliers were not light on was the effort that the nine players gave their veteran Coach against a much more physical and experienced team.

  Callie Harris (7 points) and Raylee Goins (5 points) led the offense on a night were eight different players scored at least one basket. Goins and Laynie-Jo Leonard (3 points) both connected on one of two shots from the foul line in the first quarter but the Lady Cavaliers never returned to the charity stripe after the opening eight minutes.

CCHS opened the game up with a 4-0 spurt and kept the Cougars off the scoreboard for the first three plus minutes. Kenzie McMillian and Harris scored the points and the team defense did the rest. PCHS led after the first quarter but only by a score of 10-6.

Harris connected on a 3-pointer to open the second quarter to pull Carroll County within 10-9, checking off one of the keys 🔑 to the game, staying away from a slow start. A number of games this season seemed out of reach by the first break but that certainly wasn’t the case tonight.

  Getting back to the word light, the Cavaliers are light in regards to number of players, light on Varsity experience and the roster is light in regards to weight. Patrick County flexed their muscles a bit during the next stretch and it led to a deciding 17-2 run. Madison Coleman (2 points ) found Harris on a perfectly timed back door pass to briefly break the scoring drought but the damage was done.

  Patrick County crashed the offensive glass during the game changing stretch which led to a number of put back baskets. That, along with pressing the passing lanes put the game out of reach at the break, 27-11.

The third quarter was quite possibly the best part of the evening for Carroll County as four different Lady Cavaliers scored a basket 🧺, including the first Varsity points for Aaliyah Hampton.

Hampton was called up due to the cancelation of the Junior Varsity game due to illness and connected on a baseline jumper to tie the quarter at 8-8. The lead remained at 16 points heading to the fourth quarter.

The solid play continued into the final quarter as Goins scored two quick buckets and CC Mitchell (4 points) added another to give CCHS a 14-13 lead in the second half. The second and deciding run was 10-0, pushing the score out to the final margin of 50-27. By the end of the contest the Lady Cavaliers were a little light on ⛽⛽⛽ as a number of players are Battling back from illness.

Kenzie Young, giving up a noticeable amount of size all night, recorded six clean blocks in addition to scoring two points. Coleman added a number of rebounds in addition to her basket.

Carroll County will rest up for a day before heading further down US-58 on Friday night for a rematch with Martinsville High School. The hope is that the Junior Varsity team might return to action 🎬 by then.