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The Parry McCluer High School boys basketball team started the season with a trio of nondistrict games, splitting a pair of home games before falling 67-58 at Wilson Memorial on Saturday. The Fighting Blues (1-2) came up short 56-53 in their season opener against Altavista at home on Monday of last week, but bounced back with a 50-15 home win over James River last Wednesday.
Against Altavista, the Blues took an early 7-1 lead after Braedyn Houck sank a 3-pointer and Nathan Glass scored after stealing the ball and taking it to the basket. The Blues led 17-12 after the first quarter.
The Colonels started the second quarter by scoring nine points to take a 21-19 lead.. With the Blues down 24-21, Evan Cook tied the game by hitting a 3-pointer with two-and-a-half minutes left in the first half. Altavista led 30-28 with 20 seconds left, but a layup at the buzzer by PM’s JJ Jones sent the teams into their locker rooms tied, 30-30.
The third quarter was tightly contested, with no more than six points separating the two sides. Jones, Glass, and Langston Cook made layups to start the second half and gave the Blues an early 36-32 lead. For the remainder of the quarter, Jones and Langston combined for eight points as the Blues led 46-42 heading into the final frame.
Altavista’s Jayden Boyd hit a 3-pointer to cut PM’s lead to 4645. The Blues held onto a 48-45 lead for much of the quarter before Altavista’s leading scorer, Anthony Clay, scored eight unanswered points to give the Colonels a 53-48 lead. Langston Cook scored for the Blues to cut Altavista’s lead to 50-53, and Houck made a 3-pointer shortly thereafter to tie the game 53-53 with just over a minute to go. In the last 10 seconds of the game, Boyd stole the ball and went end to end to connect on a layup and give the Colonels a 55-53 lead. Altavista made a free throw in the final seconds to escape with the 56-53 win.
In a game that featured more than six lead changes, it was PM’s lone freshman, Langston Cook, who led the Blues in scoring with 15 points. Glass pulled down 10 rebounds and had two blocks, Evan Cook dished out four assists.
“I thought defensively we were really good,” said secondyear PM head coach Tyler Kerr. “The intensity and effort were there for us.”
Kerr touched on a few missed moments for his team. “Offensively, we had a lid on the basket tonight at some points,” he said. “We were making the right plays and right decisions but just couldn’t finish at the basket.”
Reviewing the turnover which gave Altavista a lead in the closing moments, Kerr said that, “We had an inbound play that we had set up for the last 25 seconds, and we had an unfortunate turnover. That one play doesn’t dictate the whole game, though.”
PM 50, JR 15
Last Wednesday, the Blues bounced back in a dominant way, cruising to a 50-15 home win over James River.
JR’s defensive play made the game close throughout the first quarter. “I knew it was going to be close,” said Kerr. “They came out, were switching our screens and wouldn’t let us turn the corner. In that first quarter, we had to figure it out, and it took us a minute to adjust.”
Jones opened the scorebook for the Blues by sinking a 3-pointer one minute into the game. Langston Cook and Jones were the only scorers for the Blues in the first quarter, combining for 11 points to help PM take an 11-8 lead.
, The second quarter was nearly a defensive shutout for the Blues. While scoring 16 of their own points, the Blues held James River to just two points for the whole quarter. PM shared the ball well, with scoring contributions from Glass, Jones, Garrett Burton and Langston Cook. The Blues went into halftime with a 27-11 lead.
The Knights would only score four points in the second half. The Blues began to pull away in the third quarter. “I think it took a little bit for us to get our feet under us, but in the second half we really turned up the intensity,” said Kerr. The Blues scored 19 unanswered before James River got back on the scoreboard at the end of the quarter.
In the final quarter of action, the Blues got all of their reserves into the game and held the Knights to just a free throw before the game ended.
Jones led PM with 21 points and seven rebounds, while Langston Cook added 16 points, and Evan Cook had six points, five assists and two steals.
WM 67, PM 58
The Blues ended the week with a 67-58 road loss to Wilson Memorial on Saturday in Fishersville.
It was a tough challenge for PM, a Class 1 school, to take on Wilson Memorial (1-1), a larger Class 3 school.
Reviewing the contest, Kerr said, “We played a good, clean game. Wilson is a good basketball team and we just couldn’t get our shots and stops when we needed them and that allowed them to get away a little bit. The loss was not because of a lack of effort.”
Langston Cook led the Blues with 15 points and four assists, Houck scored 12 points on four 3-pointers and had a block. Jones added 12 points, pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds and had three assists and three steals. Evan Cook chipped in nine points, six boards, three assists and two steals. Also stepping up was Glass with eight points, four rebounds, two steals and a block.
Max Vess led the Green Hornets with 17 points, while Chase Snyder added 15 and Eli Irving scored 11 points for Wilson. Grant Wright just missed a doubledouble with nine points and nine rebounds for the Hornets.
The Blues were scheduled to play at James River last night. The PM junior varsity team will play host to Altavista on Monday at 7 p.m. The Blues will begin Pioneer District action on Tuesday when they play host to defending district champion Narrows. JV action starts at 5:30 p.m., with the varsity game scheduled to follow at 7 p.m.
