Photos by Leigh Downey
The Region 2C girls basketball tournament will get underway next Monday, February 19, and the James River girls will have a home game. The Knights will be the fourth seed in the tournament and host the fifth seed.
“As of right now the fifth seed is Martinsville, but that could change with teams behind them having two games left this week,” said River coach Ryan Firebaugh. “We’ll know the bracket by the end of this week.”
The Knights closed out the regular season on a high note with Three Rivers District wins over Patrick County and Glenvar. That gives River a 13-10 overall record heading in the region and the Knights finished district play at 7-5.
Last Tuesday in Springwood the girls beat visiting Patrick, 43-24. River jumped out to a 19-3 first quarter lead and never looked back. Junior Caitlin Canada scored her 1,000th career point in the third quarter and finished with a double-double, scoring 21 points to go with 12 rebounds. Honesty Liming had eight points, nine boards and three steals.
“We avenged a loss earlier to them,” said Firebaugh. “We came out from the tip and played lights out. Our defense played really good. When you hold a team to only six points in a half and only 24 points for the game you’re playing some defense.”
Last Thursday at home the girls wrapped up the regular season with a 53-9 win over Glenvar in Springwood. The Highlanders had five points at the half and didn’t score in the third quarter as they finished a winless season at 0-20.
Ten different girls scored for River, led by Canada and Kelsi Maydian with 18 each. Liming had five steals and Audrey Benson had five assists and three steals.
“Super proud of my girls on how we played,” said Firebaugh.
