The Blue Ridge District boys basketball tournament is scheduled to open on Friday of this week and Lord Botetourt will be playing at home at 6 p.m. The opponent will be either Franklin County or Staunton River, depending on what happened in Tuesday’s final regular season games.
The Cavaliers come into the week with a 4-5 district record and a 12-9 record overall. They were in fourth place in the BRD behind William Byrd, who was 5-4. Lord Botetourt had last place Staunton River at home on Tuesday while Byrd was at second place Fleming, so if LB won and Byrd lost they would be tied at 5-5. Byrd and LB split head-to-head games so then it would go to the tie-breaker, with the higher seed hosting Staunton River Friday and the fourth spot hosting Franklin County.
Undefeated Northside and second place Fleming have first round byes. The tournament continues Monday at the sites of the higher seeds, and the district championship will be next Wednesday, February 15.
Botetourt warmed up for the post-season with a game in the Adam Ward Classic at Salem High School last Saturday evening. A big crowd was on hand to watch 22-2 PH defeat Lord Botetourt, 78-44.
Photos by Brian Hoffman
“Patrick Henry is a special team this year and it is great for us to see the best of the best,” said LB coach Andrew Hart. “We didn’t play very well, but hopefully the experience will motivate us to be ready for the next big one in the playoffs.”
Jackson Crawford led LB with 15 points and Tyler Meade had 10. PH led 24-6 after one quarter and never trailed. The Patriots are a Class 5 team that Class 3 LB won’t have to worry about in the post-season, but a game like this in front of a big crowd is a great tune-up for strong post-season competition down the road.
“Our schedule in general is tough, maybe too tough,” said Hart. “We want to challenge ourselves to be ready for the biggest environments in the post season.”
The Cavaliers split two district games last week. On Tuesday, January 31, they dropped a 61-54 game to William Fleming in Roanoke. Crawford had 27 points, hitting 10 of 15 field goal attempts along with a perfect seven-for-seven from the line.
On Friday in Daleville LB took a 65-53 win over Franklin County. Crawford had 25 points, Meade had 15 and Blake Lovern had 10. Evan Bannwart had 11 rebounds.