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The Rockbridge County High School boys basketball team earned a thrilling 59-52 road victory over county rival Parry McCluer in Buena Vista on Saturday.
The Wildcats (5-7) closed out a see-saw fourth quarter with a 10-3 run to earn their fifth straight win. RC’s current streak started with a 47-41 home victory over the Fighting Blues (6-6) back on Dec. 22.
Both teams placed four players in double figures in round two on Saturday. Andreas Poindexter scored 13 points to lead the Wildcats. Milo Mulitalo posted 12 points and 11 rebounds for RC, while Matthew Burkhart also scored 12 points, and Brandon Mays finished with 10 points and eight boards.
John Snider tallied a game-high 14 points and collected nine rebounds for the Blues. Evan Cook notched 11 points and three assists, while Braedyn Houck and Landon Catlett chipped in 10 points apiece for PM.
With the score tied at 49-49 just past the midway mark of the fourth quarter, it looked like whoever had the ball last might well have won the game. But the Wildcats made a few more plays down the stretch to complete a season sweep of the Blues.
“Some guys made some big-time plays,” RC head coach Rob Winfield said. “It’s been our calling card all year: it’s been different guys game to game, week to week, who’ve really stepped up and made big plays late.”
The Blues, meanwhile, had to battle back after trailing for most of the first three quarters. Although RC briefly held a 16-7 lead in the first period – quickly canceled out by a 9-0 PM run – the margin generally stayed within a possession or two.
After the Wildcats opened up a 39-31 advantage late in the third quarter, the Blues responded with a 9-2 stretch to close the frame. Catlett’s three-point play with just 15 seconds left made it a 41-40 game going into the final period.
“When the crowd gets into it, big rivalry game, it’s really easy when you get down a little bit to let that run keep going,” said PM head coach Tyler Kerr. “You can dig yourself a hole. I thought tonight we did a good job of making timely plays.”
A wild fourth quarter started with six consecutive lead changes. Snider and Isaac Griffin hit buckets for the Blues, only to be answered by a Poindexter hoop and a Henry Lambert 3-pointer.
Cook’s triple then put PM in front 47-46 at the 5:41 mark, but Burkhart delivered a trey of his own to give RC a 49-47 edge with just over four minutes to play.
“What a sequence of events … trading baskets, trading the lead,” Kerr said. “You couldn’t ask for anything better out of a rivalry game than that.”
Yet after Snider sank a pair of free throws to tie the game at 49-49 with 3:30 to go, the Wildcats took over in the closing minutes. Mulitalo and Burkhart hit consecutive baskets for a 53-49 edge. Snider answered with a post-up bucket with 1:20 to go, but RC connected on 4-of-6 attempts at the charity stripe and got a key transition basket from Mays inside the final minute to secure the win.
The inside battle between Mulitalo and Snider was one to watch throughout the game. Both players got their numbers through sheer determination: Mulitalo completed a double-double, while Snider finished just one rebound shy of doing the same. A key on the Wildcats’ side was that their 6-foot-6 junior post was able to stay on the court.
“It’s fun to see Milo play the whole game without foul trouble,” Winfield said. “If we can keep him on the floor – if he can stop some of the ticky-tack fouls that he occasionally gets – he’s going to have nights like this every night.”
Mulitalo and Mays’ work on the glass helped RC to a 27-21 rebounding edge. And both teams took great care of the basketball, combining for just 15 turnovers in the game.
Even though the Blues came up short, Kerr knows that his team performed well – and that they’ll benefit from playing such a high-level game in a competitive and raucous environment.
“I challenged our guys tonight to match [the Wildcats’] intensity and their maturity,” the first-year PM coach said. “I thought we just did a really good job of focusing possession by possession, defensively and offensively.
“Moving forward to district play, there’s nothing but positives that can come out of this,” Kerr added. “I like where we’re at. … We’re moving in the right direction.”
And the RC team that showed up to play in Buena Vista on Saturday has come quite a long way in a short amount of time, battling back from an 0-7 start to win five in a row.
“It’s these guys buying in; it’s making subtle improvements,” Winfield said. “They’re trusting the process; they’re trusting the defense; they’re trusting the coaches. It’s a combination of everything.”
