The Lord Botetourt boys basketball team will play host to William Fleming Friday in a key Blue Ridge District basketball game. Both teams come into the week at 8-3 and looking to make an early statement in district play.
The Cavaliers opened their Blue Ridge schedule with a 54-44 win over William Byrd in Daleville last week. After an even first quarter the Cavs opened a 24-21 lead at intermission, and led just 42-39 after three periods before finishing strong.
“This game was a great high school basketball game between two quality teams,” said LB coach Andrew Hart. “They played us tough as always. They are a versatile team and provided some challenges for us, especially when they started making shots. Thankfully, we had our guys step up in the 4th quarter and make some plays.”
Jackson Crawford played well down the stretch for LB and finished with 29 points. Crawford was nine for 16 from the floor and nine for 10 on the line, hitting some key free throws down the stretch. Evan Bannwart had a dozen points and Tyler Meade had nine points and three assists for LB.
The Cavs played the second half of a “back-to-back” on Friday night when they took on Radford in the Chance Harman Classic at Floyd County High School. Radford improved to 7-1 with a 52-46 win over the Cavaliers.
“The Radford game was one that we played well enough to win,” said Hart. “Our guys came to battle on the defensive end and we did a great job on their two best players. Unfortunately, we had an offensive lull in the second half that cost us the game. Radford will continue to win a lot of games this season.”
Crawford had 18 points in this one to go with three assists and a couple steals. Bannwart had 10 points and Meade had nine.
The Cavaliers had their work cut out for them on Tuesday of this week as they were scheduled to play 11-0 Northside in Roanoke County. They host Fleming on Friday and next Tuesday LB is on the road again with a trip to Franklin County.