Now that our opening day double header has concluded, let’s shift our focus to Cavalier Basketball 🏀.
The JV Girls 👧 once again will not play as Martinsville High School is in the same boat as Glenvar in regards to not having a team this year.
JV Boys 👦 will try to avenge their only double figures defeat at Glenvar in a game that starts in less than 60 minutes.
Marion Harris should be in the Gymnasium at Martinsville for a game starting at 6pm.
The third and final game figures to tip around 7pm as the Varsity Boys look to even the score with the Highlanders as Glenvar is responsible for the 1 in the 18-1 record.
Let’s Play ▶️ some Hoops !
5 : 27 – We are getting the JV starters…No Dane Leonard or Will Motley again tonight… Mr Rakes in the starting lineup.
Play Ball !
End of 1st quarter, JV leads 16-14 !
6:01 pm – Halftime score – Cavs 39-29
Glenvar finished the first half at 4 of 15 from deep. Not a normal stat for me but Glenvar hit 18 3’s last time.
After 1st quarter in Girls 👧 Game its 5-5, per Marion Harris
End of 3rd, Boys JV trail 52-49
6:34 – Girls 👧 leading 15-13 @ Halftime
6:45 – Final in JV Game, Glenvar 69, Carroll County 64.
My unofficial charting of the 3-pointers was 7 for 27 = 26 %
6:56 pm – under 15:00 on the warm-up Clock ⏰ here at Glenvar.
End of 3rd in Martinsville – CCHS trails 30-20
7:15
Final from Martinsville
7:25 – End of 1st, Cavs 18 -16
7:43 – Cavs at the break, 32 -25
The Man 👨 with the Plan from Channel 10 in the Star 🌟 City. Film 🎥 at 11!
Cavaliers close out the half on an 11-0 run 🏃♂️ to move from four down to seven up !
Mr Davis has grown some over the years as the Buffaloes Head Coach was once a batboy for the Staunton Braves of the Valley Baseball ⚾️ League. Naturally, it was our Skipper, Lawrence Nesselrodt who was at the helm of the Braves back then.
The beauty of having a long time relationship with Lawrence ” Big Picture ” Nesselrodt is the people who we cross paths with every time we are at a ballpark together.
Today we will be hearing 👂 those two great words – Play Ball for the first time this season. We are down here for Friday and Saturday with the hopes of getting our first four games ( out of 49) played.
We open up with the home team here at 11:00 am and then after a short break we will square off with Indiana Wesleyan University. The goal each season is to capture the first piece of action 🎬 and being we are the visitors that will be Hunter Fansler at the plate 🍽
Pre-Game 🙏
The trademark ( ™️) for me at our Home games is time and temperature 🌡, something I borrow from days of old at Yankee Stadium 🏟. A quick check tells me its 52° now and in just a moment I can add the time of the first pitch !
It’s game time and when the wind isn’t blowing its downright tolerable here.
Starting lineup !11:04 and 52°, enjoy your Ballgame!
Braedan Pakkala just pitched his way out of a bases loaded, no out jam with only 1 run allowed. Top of the 3rd now with Milligan leading 1-0.
12:05 – Indiana Wesleyan University has arrived at the field ahead of their opening game at 2pm.
#35 – Dakota Aspinwall heads out to the mound for us in the bottom of the fourth inning. With two games on the schedule today both games will be 7 inning contests.
Cool Title and one I take a great deal of Pride in but trust me when I say that a number of things fall under the Umbrella 🌂at this level.
12:14 – Top of the 5th now and we trail 3-0 without having given up a hard hit ball. Early season says the Pitchers are ahead of the hitters and that is the case today.
So I changed my position at the Park in hopes of changing our luck a bit. Standing 🧍♂️ just behind the outfield fence in left and a Home Run fell at my feet. Lucked changed but in the other direction as Milligan plated a fourth run on a solo shot. The positive side of it was I picked it up and returned it to Coach Davis.
12:45 – Bottom of the 6th inning now, meaning our Golden Bears 🐻 will have one more turn at the plate.
The question for game two today will be which team has the advantage ? The team that has 7 innings under their belt or the team with fresh legs ?
Dakota has retired the first two batters to start the inning and looks to complete the 3 up, 3 down before allowing a walk.
The inning got away from us as the Buffaloes had a two out rally that pushed the lead to 7-0. Bang – Bang play at second base would have kept it at 4-0 but it wasn’t meant to be.
12:57 – Will Gray leads off our last stand as we look to build on our two hit total. Both hits came in the top of the fifth inning but Cody Cooper was stranded at third base.
1:00 – Final out in 7-0 setback.
What happens next is a typical double header day as the team has water, Sports drinks and healthy snacks for the between game break.
Pick things back up after 2pm…
2:15 – Scoreless in the Top of 2nd
2:38 – Tied at 1-1, Top 3rd as Noah Lukas scores our first run !
3:00 – Down 4-2, Top of 4th
3:30 – Down 4-2, Top of 5th, hanging tough…
Hunter Fansler hits our first Long Ball of the season for the second run…
3:50 – Big moment as IWU has the bases loaded with two outs, we need to keep it close. Fingers crossed 🤞… Got the out !
4:00 – We have two on with two out now, needing a clutch hit… not this time…Off to the final inning…
Sadly, Day 1 ends with a rough top of the 7th as five runs cross the plate, making the final score a slightly misleading 9-2 for our Golden Bears 🐻.
The good news is that we get to try it again in just 18+ hours. Off to the team Hotel 🏨 and a meal.
As always, its a Great Day to be a Golden Bear 🐻!!
When I stumbled across this Priceless photo 📷 earlier this morning it simply made me smile. In a search for reasons to give Hope where there might not be enough 🙏, this one simply popped !
It was understandable to me that players who stayed at Duke University and graduated 🎓 ( those were the Good Old Days) might have worn some people out. Christian, JJ, Paulus and Grayson come to mind for sure but Cooper Flagg just wants to play Basketball 🏀.
First for his Country and now for the Blue Devils, then in a few months in the NBA. 👀 seeing this brave young Lady holding her sign made me smile ! There are days where having reasons to smile 😃 are in short supply.
Also, Vickey Ritchie sent along a 📝 note saying that Coach Mayo posted that our Girls 👧 Basketball team would be playing tonight at 6pm in Martinsville. My guess is that the Junior Varsity once again doesn’t get to play. Martinsville doesn’t have a JV team, the last time we played them it was the Mount Airy JV we faced.
Vickey was also kind enough to let me know about a grammar error in the Boys Varsity gamer. Greatly appreciate 🙏 the assistance !
The Hill – For the second time inside of a week, Carroll County hosted both a Three Rivers District basketball game and a celebration. After the extra curricular activities of Senior Night for the Swim 🏊♂️ Teams, Cheerleaders and Boys Basketball players was completed, the Cavaliers wasted little time in dispatching the Cougars 73-32.
The victory, coupled with Floyd County edging Glenvar at the buzzer, allows the Cavaliers (18-1, 7-1 Three Rivers District) to hit the road for a three game stretch with a little wiggle room.
Isaiah Easter sat out the opening minutes as Head Coach Anthony Barnes started five of his six Seniors. Easter quickly made up for the lost time as the Junior finished with a game high 17 points. Ethan Richardson (15 points) and fellow Senior Bryce Smoot (11 points) joined the race to double figures on a night where all 12 played and 10 scored.
Patrick County managed to slow 🐌 down the high octane Cavaliers for the opening half of the contest played in Stuart last month but that was not the case Thursday night. The Cougars remained close after the opening quarter at 17-10 but watched CCHS score 26 points in the second quarter to make it 43-18 at the break.
Easter scored nine of his points during the knockout round while Junior Big Man Trace Reavis scored all five of his points with a over the shoulder layup and a spot up 3-pointer. Cody Reece ( 8 points) shared time with both Reavis and the duo of Landon Puckett (4 points) and Jay Burnette (5 points).
The extended playing time for the entire roster had added value as the Cavaliers will be back in action 🎬 tomorrow night at Glenvar. That game will cap off a second straight three game week as the team looks to finish making up the games lost to the Winter storm.
The moment that quite possibly caused the loudest response from the energetic crowd came at 1:54 left in the contest. Reserve guard E.J. Conner sent the building into a frenzy by finding nothing but the bottom of the net with a 3-pointer. The night could not have played out any better for Head Coach Anthony Barnes, other than Kyle Bunn and Isaiah Leagans joining Conner in the scoring column.
“What an awesome way to spend Senior night, so proud of our guys and the way they played tonight,” said Barnes. ” In our pre-game talk I told them to come out with high intensity and set the tone of the game early and they done just that. We got into transition, attached their zone , passed up a good shot for a better shot. Isaiah Easter continues to be in full stride on both ends of the floor as games leading scorer with 17. Ethan Richardson adds 15 and Bryce Smoot with 11. “
The Junior Varsity team opened the night in a similar fashion with a 63-29 victory over their counterparts. Blake Reed took home game high scoring honors with 18 points and the Sophomore was joined in double figures by Colton Gravley (13 points) and Hayden Jackson (11 points).
Friday night up I-81 will be about unfinished business for both teams as Glenvar ended the perfect season for the Varsity and the JV Highlanders sank 18 3-pointers in the lone lopsided defeat for the Cavaliers.
Sticking to his one day at a time approach, Barnes did reflect one more time on the Senior Night effort he received.
” Our bench guys really looked good together with combined with 18,” Barnes added. “I’m proud of effort top to bottom, fun night on senior night and going into the Glenvar game really playing well on both ends. Told the guys to rest up, get plenty of fluids in and be ready for huge District match-up with Glenvar on the road. HOW ABOUT THEM. CAVS !”
A.S.P.N on The Hill 