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.

Girls 👧 tipped at 5:30 pm

Halftime score sits at 8-15, Lady Maroons

     The Lady Cavaliers brought the hustle tonight, working on smoothing the fringes to bring it all together. Stay strong ladies!

Much more to follow !!!

Final from the Lady’s game, 23-35 Lady Maroons wrapping it up and coming out on top.

Heads up Lady Cavs, tomorrow is a brand new day! 💙🩶🤍

Lady 👩 Cavaliers take the 5th quarter in a Big Way !!

5th quarter belongs to the Lady Cavaliers 16-0! Way to be strong ladies!

End of 1st quarter, Duke 17, Norfolk State University 5

    Cavaliers leading at the half 14-11, ride that wave boys!
Go blue! 💙🏀🩶🏀🤍

Halftime score in Durham, Lady 👩 Blue Devils 38, Norfolk State 16 (7:48)

We are experiencing a Vickey Ritchie moment at Halftime as we are watching 👀 a Special Needs Basketball 🏀 game !

Tugs at the Heart ❤♥ in a BIG way !

Beth is fighting a Low Battery 🔋on her cellphone, a problem that I’m very familiar with !!!! Update coming soon…

End of 3rd in Durham, Duke 58-26..10 minutes left to go…

Update from Galax…

Cavalier Boys in Blue ride an action packed wave of victory right out of Galax and back to the Hill!
Regulation score: 33-25
5th quarter score: 4-2

Way to hang tough fellas!

Both Lady Cavs and the Boys are going for the 3rd game of the week Thursday night at home where they’ll see the Floyd Buffaloes come to town.

Ladies will tip-off at 4:30pm in the CCMS gym, boys will play immediately after.

Go Cavs, Go!! 💙🏀🩶🏀🤍

____________________________________

5th quarter action 🎬

We will see what the Coaches send it to generate a story or not.

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 📫.