One week after holding off a furious rally from visiting Galax Middle School, Head Coach Darian Brown returned to his old stomping grounds looking for the season sweep. The first year coach earned his sixth victory of the season as his Cavaliers defeated the Maroon Tide 33-25 Wednesday night.

Playing 10 games in 18 days can wear down a group but Brown is loving what he sees from his Cavaliers.

” I just want to start by saying I’m so proud of my guys!,” said Brown.  “Tonight’s atmosphere was great, I bet a lot of varsity teams don’t get crowds like that. Once again my guys showed up. I know they’re tired and banged up after 3 games on Saturday and playing on the road last night but they continue to show up. I made it clear after the game how important everyone on this team is. We have guys who aren’t playing a ton of minutes but show up at practice everyday ready to compete and make each other better. Some of those same guys show up every morning before school to get shots up! I can’t wait to see the final product when these guys are playing on the varsity team. I love the unselfishness and the way everyone supports each other on this team and I owe a lot of our success to that.”

  Gibson Barr dropped a game high 15 points to lead the way but had plenty of help in the scoring column. Six more Cavaliers netted points and its worth noting that Sam Johnson was money 💰 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, going six for six.

Clinging to a 14-11 lead heading into the break, Brown watched his defense go lights out in the third quarter. Not sure if there was a Duke Floor Slap involved but the Cavaliers held Galax scoreless in a 9-0 breakaway six minutes.

Carroll County … 5  9   9  10 – 33

Galax MS..          – 6   5   0  14-  25

Carroll County (33) – Barr 15, Johnson 6, Stanovcak 4, Millaway 3, Reed 2, Hill 2, Poe 1.

On the Girls side of things, Coach Kris Richardson received offensive production from five Lady Cavaliers with Kierra Robinson leading the way with 10 points. The growing pains continue for the young ball club but this time around they avoided the early knock out punch 👊.

Carroll County trailed just 6-4 after the opening quarter and the margin each time was close (2,5,3,1) each time. The 24 points scored was one of the highest totals of the season but the Big 3 of Galax combined for 29 of the 35 points.

Natalie Dalton finished with six points and Maddie Carico netted four while both Briley McGhee and Raegan Combs added a basket 🧺. The offense was there but this time slowing down the Maroon Tide was the issue.

Carroll County will return to The Hill to host Floyd County Thursday night as the Lady Cavaliers complete their three games in three nights schedule for the week.

Coach Richardson knows that his team will get there and remains optimistic about the future.

” I am trying to comprehend what we can do better, as I set licking my wounds” said Richardson.” We play hard, but we just can’t get over the hump. Making shots, cutting down on turnovers are the two things we need to work on the most.”

Carroll County   4   4   9   7  – 24

Galax MS             6  9  12   8 –  35

Carroll County (24) – Robinson 10, Dalton 6, Carico 4, Combs 2, McGhee 2.