The Lord Botetourt boys took on Northside and William Fleming in basketball last week hoping to make a statement. As it turned out, the statement was that the Vikings and Colonels both have outstanding basketball teams.
LB lost to both district rivals at home despite putting up a great effort on both nights. Against Northside the Vikings won 72-65. Botetourt made a run in the fourth quarter after falling behind by a dozen but couldn’t catch the talented visitors.
“Our guys battled hard until the end of the game, but just didn’t have enough to pull out the win,” said LB coach Andrew Hart. “The credit was all to Northside, they shot the ball really well. It is hard to beat anyone when they shoot that well. We hung in there and gave them a scare at the end so our coaching staff was proud of the effort.”
The Viking shot 62 percent on three-pointers, hitting 10 of 16 on the night. LB shot 49 percent from the floor and 37 percent on threes, which isn’t bad. The Cavs were just 11 of 20 from the free throw line, and that hurt.
Kyle Arnholt and Owen Prince had 18 points each to lead the Cavaliers, while Conner Tilley had 15, hitting five of six three-point attempts. Tanner Selkirk had eight rebounds.
On Thursday night the Cavs played host to William Fleming and jumped out to a 13-9 lead after the first quarter. Fleming then rallied to lead 25-19 by the half and 42-30 after three quarters, taking a 66-55 win.
“We had a good opportunity in this game to beat a really good William Fleming team,” said Hart. “Unfortunately, we made too many mistakes. We played great defense throughout the game, but our turnovers, particularly in the second quarter, cost us the game.”
Tilley led LB in scoring with 13 points while Arnholt had 10 and a team high seven rebounds. Tilley and Matthew Oliver had four assists each.
The two losses dropped LB to 3-2 in the BRD and 8-6 overall, holding on to the third spot in the district standings. The Cavaliers were scheduled to host Staunton River on Tuesday and William Byrd on Friday. On Saturday evening they’ll play Cave Spring and that game will be at Hidden Valley with the Cave Spring gym undergoing construction.
“We will regroup and look to improve during our stretch of games this week,” said Hart.
