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The Lord Botetourt boys basketball team will open the season at home, but not until next week. The Cavaliers will host Blacksburg on Tuesday, December 6, to open the season.
Two games on LB’s original schedule have been rescheduled. The game at Blacksburg that was scheduled for Tuesday of this week has been moved to December 21 and the home game with Floyd originally scheduled for Friday will be the second game of a doubleheader with the girls on December 9.
Botetourt will return two key seniors in Jackson Crawford and Tyler Meade. Crawford is a recent signee of Emory & Henry and a four-year varsity player for LB. He was All-Region 3D as a junior and looks to run the show as LB’s point guard.
“Jackson led us in scoring and assists,” said LB coach Andrew Hart. “He has found more layers to his game to improve during the off-season. It has been a blast watching him improve and grow-up the last couple of years. We are excited for him to have a big-time senior season.”
Meade is a left-handed sharpshooter.
“Tyler is a relentless worker and one of the best all-around athletes at LB,” said Hart. “He has had productive years as a sophomore and junior. He has really improved in the off-season and we are looking forward to seeing him show that this season.”
The Cavaliers have several other players returning on varsity. Junior Evan Bannwart and sophomore Blake Lovern saw some time last season. They have improved tremendously in the off-season and Hart will count on them for major contributions.
Botetourt also has several players coming off the football team. LB’s football season lasted until the region final last Friday.
“We’re expecting a big and important crew from the football team,” said Hart. “We aren’t 100 percent sure which football players will end up on the hardwood with us, but we know their toughness and athleticism will be a big factor for our team.”
The Cavaliers lost several multi-season contributors to graduation from last season but hopes are high for another strong campaign.
“We will have a lot of new faces contributing to our team this year,” said Hart. “It has been exciting to see a lot of growth in the off-season. Our goal is to get back to playing championship-level basketball like we have at times over the past few years. It will take some time and some game experience for us to continue to evolve, but our coaching staff is confident that we can keep challenging the best teams in our area. We have been a few plays away from being a state-tournament team the last two seasons. Hopefully, we can get back to that level and get ‘over-the-hump’ this year.”
