Photo by Leigh Downey
The James River boys’ basketball team will have a special home game this Saturday to celebrate “Alumni Day.” Craig County will be here to provide the opposition for the non-district game.
Saturday will open with a noon jayvee game, followed by a varsity tilt at approximately 2 p.m. All James River boys’ basketball alumni will be admitted to the game for free.
The Knights have been working around the weather. Last week’s home game with Floyd was moved back a night because of the ice storm and River was scheduled to play at Alleghany on Thursday but that was postponed. The Knights were planning to host Carroll County in a Three Rivers District game on Monday of this week but that was also postponed as Carroll students were not allowed to travel.
When the game was finally held Floyd had a big night in Springwood, defeating River 58-24. Kody Park and Mark Voight had six points each to lead the Knights and Park had seven rebounds while Voight had six.
“Floyd gave us a good beating,” said River coach Ethan Humphries. “We knew coming in they’d trap and press for 32 minutes. Our 31 turnovers was not a good recipe against a team who has a state title run ceiling.
“We somehow have to cut those turnovers to a third of that to even have a chance in our district so I’ll have to do a better job putting our guys in position to succeed. On a positive note, even with a historic turnover rate we held them to their season scoring average. So in some aspects, defensively, we did a few good things and we’ll build around that.”
With the loss River fell to 5-7. The Knights are scheduled to play at Radford Friday, followed by Saturday’s Alumni celebration against Craig. Next Tuesday, January 21, Patrick County will come here for a district game.
