Darian Brown and Kris Richardson kicked off another busy stretch of Hoops Tuesday night 🌙 by hopping on the Bus 🚌 and driving over to Dublin for contests with Pulaski County Middle School.

Wednesday night they will play at Galax and then return to The Hill Thursday night to host Floyd County.

Both teams fell behind early as the Cougars jumped out to a HOT start and its worth noting that the Cavaliers won the second half of both contests!

The Girls played first so we will start there.

Carroll County… 4.   2.  2   7  – 15

Pulaski County… 8   11  3  4  – 26

CCMS won the bonus period, 8-7

Scoring ‘ McGhee 8, Dalton 3, Combs 2, Robinson 2.

The difference in the game was the Cougars #1 Miss Hartley. She scored 11 points in the opening hall and finished up with a game high 15. Defensively, she blocked a number of shots and altered many more.

Briley McGhee scored all six of the Lady Cavaliers first half points and finished up with a team high eight. Natalie Dalton, Reagan Combs and Kierra Robinson each scored in the second half.

One of the bright spots for Richardson was that his defense held the Cougars to just seven points after the break.

Offensively, Carroll County dropped eight points in the extra time with Maggie Branch accountin for five.

Note – I now understand the scoring process in the bonus time as each time a team is whistled for a foul the opponent is awarded one point. It was a treat to hear such an impressive young man 👨 announcing the game last night and he explained that to us.

Last time against Galax, the Lady Cavaliers had four good looks in the final minute to tie or take the lead before falling by three points.

Boys 👦 :

Carroll County    4     5.  6  13 – 28

Pulaski County.   19  11. 8   5 – 43

CCMS – Barr 14, Mitchell 3, Reed 3, Millaway 2, Poe 2, Hill 2, Stanovcak 2

While the Girls were dealing with one dominant player, the Boys were up against a two headed monster 👹. Liam Flores (13 points ) and Brayden Grubb (15 points ) at times looked like they could be playing Varsity sooner than later.

The duo matched the 28 points scored by the Cavaliers with Grubb hitting three 3-pointers in the early stages.

Gibson Barr was battling every step of the way and led Carroll County with 14 points. Six other Cavs dented the scorebook with Grant Reed and Ben Mitchell each adding three points for Coach Brown.

As was the case in the Girls contest, CCMS won the second half 19-13 behind the combination of Barr scrapping on the offensive end and the team defense picking up the intensity.

Galax – Carroll County Boys 👦 was a remarkable game last week on The Hill and there’s hope that it can be the same type of battle tonight.

In the bonus period the Cougars won 11-7  with Daniel Bouldin ( 4 points ) and Dane Austin ( 3 points ) scoring for the Cavaliers.

I will circle 🔵 back to add any thoughts that the Coaches have after they see the Post 📫.

Head Coaches Darian Brown and Kris Richardson have been stockpiling frequent coaching miles since their seasons began. But last week was played at a pace that would have had the National Basketball Association talking about load management.

The week started out with road games at Christiansburg Middle School and after one day off they returned to The Hill for back to back contests, including a night with neighborly Galax in the house.

One more day off followed and then it was back on the Bus 🚌 for a three game tournament up in Wytheville. The day started with 8am and 9am contests and ended late in the afternoon for both squads.

Playing an already condensed eight week schedule, week number two presented some unique challenges for the coaching staffs and the parents who were wanting to enjoy seeing their Sons or Daughters play their games. Then there are the young Student Athletes to consider and that’s when the Head Coaches offered their thoughts on the week.

” The biggest challenge is trying to make adjustments during the games,” said Coach Richardson. ” My team is very young, and they don’t have the experience to adjust in a short time without practicing it. We have done well with the adjustments we make but it’s so much easier to break it down in person to show all the options that can happen as compared to drawing it on a board and erase it multiple time to show the same thing. I am personally a visual person, so seeing it live with all the moving players allow them to process it easier. Only having a few timeouts per game and an 8-10 minute half-time really shortens the time for change.”

Coach Brown echoed the thoughts after his team captured the Consolation bracket in Wytheville with back to back victories.

” I agree with what Kris said, I also think it’s challenging to keep them focused on wanting to win the next game,” said Brown. “They exert a ton of energy in to one game and then to wake up the next day and expect them to do it again can be challenging, especially for a middle schooler. We’ve had a few different guys step up in different ways this last week and that’s what I’m most proud of. They finished 4-2 on the 6 game stretch. They’re a scrappy bunch.”

Richardson and his Girls earned their initial victory of the season in the final contest on Saturday afternoon. The team had experienced a few close calls as of late, so getting over the hump was a great experience for the players to absorb.

Richardson knows that his team will eventually get there but would welcome more time for adjustments.

” The adjustments can be anything from how to guard certain plays that maybe they have never seen to someone running a 1-3-1 or a 1-2-2 trap and not having enough practice time to easily break the trap,” added Richardson.

No rest for the weary as both teams are set to add three more contests to the games played column beginning with a road trip to Pulaski County. Next stop will be st Galax and then back to The Hill to host Floyd County on Thursday.