College Basketball 🏀 x 5, if you count my wife and her Love 💘 for the Mens version of the Duke University Blue Devils. Her enthusiasm for the game made it harder to write ✍ an already tough story to write.

The difference between the Carroll County High School Boys Basketball team and all of the 10 teams shown above is the work Coach Barnes us personal for both him and I. I would have given him a pass on participating in the story but was overjoyed he found some positive comments about a game that didn’t look quite right.

In order , when Lin’s game is over (6:08) we will head up the Mountain ⛰ to Cedar City for a makeshift triple header at Southern Utah University.

SUU will host our other neighborhood school, Utah Tech in a Women’s game at 2pm local time. The Duke Lady Blue Devils tip at 2pm here as well and then at 3pm we add Alyssa Ervin and Furman University to the mix. 3 Lady Basketball games at once !!!

After the Furman game goes final, we head back down the Mountain ⛰ to close out the evening with the Men’s version of the SUU – UT rivalry at 7pm.

So, to the Mothers 👩 of our Varsity Cavaliers, tell them to keep their heads up and stay warm during the storm. We will live to play another day !

Duke University is leading Wake by 3 touchdowns now but is Lin going to want to leave early……I think not.

If anyone wonders why I don’t write about the Duke Men, its because while the World is short on many things, people  writing about or talking about that corner of the Duke universe simply isn’t one of them…

UNC and Virginia Men have a good one going on right now, just not on our TV…

Final minute……we got places to go….

Duke 90 – 66 (0:46.1)(0:18.8) Timeout, why????? 90-69 (F)

Next Stop ✋Cedar City !!!

Photo 📷 : Velvet Leonard

Buchanan – Isaiah Easter scored six of his team high 19 points in a 17 second window of the final minute of the game Friday night, only to see the homestanding  James River sink a 3-pointer to win the Three Rivers District showdown 64 – 61.

Carroll County (7-9) was forced to be precise from the floor throughout the contest as despite the physicality of the play, the Cavaliers were only rewarded with 11 free throws. Easter sank the 11th free throw with 0:26.4 remaining to knot the game at 61 – 61, setting up the nail 💅 bitting finish it deserved.

The Knights executed their final play to perfection, sinking a 3-pointer with just two seconds remaining. Unlike the College game where a team calling a timeout gets to advance the ball to half court, Carroll County was forced to try and force overtime. The team was unable to answer the late basket 🧺.

  ” Very proud of my guys playing hard, coming back and tieing the game up in a very physical,rough game,” said Head Coach Anthony Barnes. ” Very somber locker room , but I told them you learn more in a close loss and it shows grit, determination and toughness and fight inside them as a TEAM, even with outcome and ending of game. Sometimes you win the battles and loose the war on circumstances outside of your fight and effort. We will keep working, pushing and improving till 💪 the end ! Go CAVS!”

The team was playing a second straight game without Eli Lark due to Illness but the Cavaliers finished the game with seven players scoring atleast four points.

Colton Gravley joined Easter in double figures by scoring 10 points, including going 5 of 6 from the charity stripe. Right behind  the duo was Blake Reed (8 points) and Will Motley and Trace Reavis with 7 points apiece.

Kyle Bunn continues to finish out his Senior season on an upswing, finishing with six points and Hayden Jackson rounded out the scoring for Carroll County with four points.

The teams traded buckets in the first half with James River (10-7) closing out play with you guessed it, draining a 3-pointer to cut ✂️ the Cavalier lead down to 27 -26

The back and forth play continued across the third quarter until the final two minutes plus. The Knights drilled three from deep as part of their 11-0 run that left Carroll County down 8 with just 8:00 to play.

The Cavaliers controlled the fourth quarter but James River attempted 13 free throws across the final minutes to set up the final play.

Motley found Reavis for an easy two on the opening possession and Reed drained a floater to cut the lead down to just four at 45 – 41. The Cavaliers kept charging and finally caught the home team with 0:26.4 left.

Everything on the schedule 📅 for next week will have two words attached to it – weather permitting. As of now, both the Junior Varsity and Varsity Boys 👦 are set to host Patrick County Tuesday night on The Hill.

****** Monday is hosting Christiansburg on The Hill – weather permitting…

Buchanan – While a number of High School and College games are being played early or being pushed back due to the pending storm, the Carroll County Girls flipping their home doubleheader against the Knights into road games on Friday night was about economics.

James River – Buchanan is not playing Junior Varsity Boys Basketball this year to instead of the normal four game set with two playing in both places, it was changed to play all three in the same place both nights. Very cost effective move that was made well before the pending storm. Next month the same format will be used back on The Hill.

Our Cheerleaders miss out on one opportunity to perform at home 🏡 with there being one less home game but both Schools save the cost of sending a bus 🚌 to the other end of the Three Rivers District.

Now that we have explained how all of the Cavaliers ended up in Buchanan, let’s take a look at the results.

Hailey Cushman and our JV Girls played their game in the secondary Gymnasium opposite the Boys Varsity game. A glitch with the Network made viewing the game live unattainable but its my understanding that you can now watch the replay.

Our JV Lady Cavaliers (7-5) dropped a 44-37 decision to the home team. It’s my hope to add more from this contest before the dust settles.

On the Varsity side, Raylee Goins opened the contest by making a 3-pointer for the first basket of the game. It was a great way to start and hopes of building on the shooting success from the recent victory over Martinsville were sky high.

Sadly, the 3-0 lead would be the only lead of the contest and the Goins triple was the only made basket in the opening quarter. The upside was Head Coach Howard Mayo received another stellar defensive effort, keeping CCHS in the game at 8-3.

The second quarter started out in the exact same manner but this time the made 3-pointer belonged to Bree Campbell – Zendejas. Aaliyah Hampton added a free throw but the Lady Cavaliers trailed 19 – 7 at the break.

” Our game last night was tough as we struggle to knock down open shots,” said Mayo. ” I thought our defense was solid and we did a good job of limiting them to only 6 offensive rebounds. What comes next is we continue to work and get better. This a resilient group who has gotten better.”

One thing about a Mayo coached team is that you are going to see 32 minutes of commitment from his Cavaliers. The team welcomed back Laynie-Jo Leonard from her injury but was once again without Madison Coleman.

The team trailed 26 – 9 halfway through the third quarter and they owned the next three minutes. Carroll County outscored the Knights 11-2 to pull within 28-20. Callie Harris scored all of her points during the run and Goins added three of her team high 12. Zendejas rounded out the highlight stretch with her second basket 🧺.

The upcoming schedule as of Saturday morning has both of the Girls 👧 teams playing Tuesday in Stuart versus Patrick County High School. Naturally, everything is subject to change due to the severity of the Storm.

Carroll County   3.  4.  13.  6 – 26

James River.       8.  11  14  6 – 44

Lady Cavaliers (26) – Goins 12, Harris 6, Campbell – Zendejas 5, Mitchell 2, Hampton 1, Young, Leonard.