Lord Botetourt pulled away in the second quarter and won the first meeting between the two Botetourt County boys basketball teams last Thursday. The Cavaliers took a 77-56 win over James River in Springwood.
“We played really well and played really hard against James River,” said LB coach Andrew Hart. “We had big contributions on offense and defense from many players.”
The Cavaliers led 18-11 after one quarter, then outscored River 27-10 in the second period to take a 45-22 lead at the half. River outscored the Cavs 35-32 in the second half but the 23 point halftime deficit was too large to overcome.
“The second quarter really killed us,” said River coach Ethan Humphries. “Turnovers are something you can’t do against a team like LB. They have hands down the best point guard in Timesland and to give a player like Jackson Crawford and his team 17 more shot attempts than us is asking for a long night.”
Photos by Brian Hoffman
Crawford had four steals and finished with 17 points. Evan Bannwart led the Cavaliers with 24 points, including four threes. Sam Bell led River with 15 points and Ryan Steger had 10.
The Knights bounced back on Saturday with a 65-45 win over Halifax County at the Roy Stanley Memorial Shootout at Roanoke College. Steger had 28 points, eight rebounds and six assists as the Knights returned to the site of last season’s state semifinal thriller against Radford. Bell had 12 points and George Toliver had 11 rebounds. River led by 15 at the half and blew the game open by outscoring the Comets 19-10 in the third quarter.
“Halifax was a great bounce back win,” said Humphries. “It would’ve been easy to let our previous game lag into our next one but our senior leadership showed. Just a few weeks ago we had big trouble when we scrimmaged Halifax, but our guys have continued to work hard and it showed.”
Combined with a 68-48 win over Parry McCluer last Tuesday, December 6, the Knights are 4-1 on the young season. They were scheduled to play at Rockbridge Tuesday and Thursday they’re at Waynesboro.
The Cavaliers suffered their first loss Friday when they dropped a 61-57 decision to Floyd.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t play a great game and let Floyd come in and steal one from us,” said Hart. “We need to improve our physical toughness. Floyd was scrappy and played hard and made plays at the right times to win the game.”
Bannwart had 18 points to lead the Cavaliers, Crawford had 14 and Tyler Meade had a dozen.
Along with a season opening 61-59 win over Blacksburg in their season opener the Cavaliers are now 2-1. They were scheduled to return the trip to Floyd on Tuesday and Saturday they host Fluvanna at 5:15 p.m. in the Bob Johnson Classic in Daleville.