Photo by Edmee Halser
The James River boys will wrap up the basketball regular season on Friday when they take on Glenvar in Roanoke County. The Knights will not play in the Three Rivers District tournament as only the top two teams will qualify.
On Monday the Knights dropped a district game at Patrick County, 69-40. Trey Taylor led River with 16 points.
“We never could get anything going on either side of the ball,” said coach Ethan Humphries. “We don’t have a lot of firepower, so when our defense slips like it did it turns into a real long night. The last two road games have been rough for us.”
River hosted Radford last Thursday and the visiting Bobcats took a 48-33 win. Matthew Alderson had nine points and seven rebounds and Maddox Pichay had eight points. River trailed by just three at the half, 22-19, but the Knights did not score in the third quarter and fell behind 29-19.
“We competed and executed at a high level,” said Humphries. “For us to play five guards and dominate the glass like we did showed how tough our guys played. We did everything we needed through three quarters to win, but some shots fell for Radford and didn’t for us. Down multiple possessions going into the fourth we had to go off script and it opened the game up for Radford. We were proud of how our guys represented us in our last home game.”
The top eight teams in Region 2C qualify for the region tournament. There are 12 teams in the region, and the eight qualifiers will be announced after this week’s games.
