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The Parry McCluer High School boys basketball team’s season came to end with a 75-48 loss to George Wythe in the Region 1C semifinals on Thursday night at Pulaski County High School.
The Fighting Blues finished with an overall record of a 17-10 and a Pioneer District record of 10-2, bouncing back from a 2-5 start to the season. On Saturday at Virginia Tech, GW (24-3), the top seed from the Mountain Empire District, lost 65-55 to defending Class 1 state champion Auburn (22-8), the second seed from the Mountain Empire District, in the Region 1C finals. GW and Auburn both advanced to the Class 1 state tournament.
Against GW, the Blues, the second seed from the Pioneer District, never led in the first half of the game, with GW taking a 23-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“George Wythe is a phenomenally talented team,” said PM head coach Tyler Kerr. “They like to play an up-tempo style and shoot the three, and shoot the three they did.” The Maroons went 8-of-14 from beyond the 3-point line against PM, and they shot 29of-52 from the floor. The Blues trailed 36-22 at halftime.
In the third quarter, the Blues cut the lead to eight points. “I thought we would start to go on our run at that point,” said Kerr.
The Maroons responded with a 14-2 run against PM with two minutes left in the third quarter. “That’s just the type of team they are, and it started to snowball away from us at that point,” said Kerr.
At the end of the third quarter, GW led 56-34. The Maroons piled on another 19 points in the fourth quarter, and the Blues were unable to mount a comeback. Landon Catlett led the Blues with 14 points and Evan Cook added 12 point.
Going over the game, Kerr said the Maroons “played a fullcourt press the entire game, all four quarters. I thought we handled that really well, but we just couldn’t keep pace with them and get stops when we needed to.”
Reflecting on the season and his first year as the Blues’ head coach, Kerr said, “I couldn’t be happier with the group of kids I had this year, and I wouldn’t trade them for the world. Us coaches never had a second of trouble with them on the floor or off. When it comes to the first year of coaching, I couldn’t be more blessed.”
The Blues will miss their two seniors, forwards John Snider and Isaac Griffin. Snider was a four-year varsity player, and Griffin was on the varsity team for two years. “Neither one of them has ever come in and given us any trouble,” said Kerr. “They are both really highcharacter kids that any coach would be proud to have.”
Praising Snider, who signed his letter of intent last month to play football for Division II school Emory & Henry College, Kerr said, “He’s a football guy at heart but he did some tremendous stuff for us on the basketball court.”
Kerr said that Griffin “improved tremendously over the course of the year. Griffin went from 26 percent shooting from the floor to 67 percent.”
The PM coach expects to return eight of his 10 varsity players from this year’s season going into the next, and the Blues will only have two seniors next year, guards Cook and Catlett. “It never dawned on me much until now but we have a bit of a young team as well.,” said Kerr. “The future is very bright, and we have a bunch of hard workers. I couldn’t put chains on the gym to keep these guys out of it.”
PM 47, GC 38
The Blues earned a 47-38 home win over Grayson County in the Region 1C quarterfinals on Tuesday of last week in Buena Vista.
The first quarter of the game was a low-scoring bout. The Blues got on the scoreboard first, with Catlett finding a layup in the middle and Griffin doing the same to make the score 4-0. The score was tied 8-8 for the majority of the quarter, but a free throw by Catlett gave PM a 9-8 lead going into the second quarter.
The Blue Devils (8-15) made a 3-pointer to start the second quarter to take their only lead of the game, 11-9. Snider and Cook combined for 12 points to lead the Blues back and take a 21-11 lead before halftime.
GC and PM traded three pointers to start the second half. Snider helped the Blues maintain their lead by scoring a three pointer and a free throw. PM held a 29-21 advantage heading into the final frame.
The Blue Devils were unable to catch PM in the fourth quarter. In the closing minutes, Cook hit a total of five free throws to help seal the game, with the Blues winning 47-38.
Catlett led the Blues with 18 points and two steals, while Cook added 14 points. Snider had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
