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In one of the all-time great renditions of the high school boys basketball rivalry between Parry McCluer and Rockbridge County, the Fighting Blues made just a few more key plays down the stretch, earning a 79-75 victory in Lexington on Wednesday of last week.
PM used a crucial 15-4 run in the fourth quarter to turn a four-point deficit into a sevenpoint lead (76-69) with just 42 seconds to play, and they held off a late charge from the Wildcats to secure the win in a game that featured nine ties and 10 lead changes. With the win, the Blues broke a two-game losing streak to the Wildcats, who won both contests last winter.
All five starters scored in double figures for the Blues (6-3), led by 22 points and eight rebounds from JJ Jones and 17 markers from Landon Catlett. Henry Lambert poured in 31 points and grabbed seven rebounds for RC (19), and Milo Mulitalo totaled 25 points and nine boards.
Trailing 65-61 with just over five minutes remaining, the Blues seemed to find an extra gear during the game’s decisive stretch.
“Just staying the course, and turning up the intensity when we needed to” made the difference in the outcome, PM head coach Tyler Kerr said. “Any time you play in this rivalry game, both teams are going to trade blows. I’m just glad that we made a couple more plays.”
RC head coach Rob Winfield credited the Blues with executing well against multiple defensive looks from his squad.
“Sometimes it’s the team that makes the tough shots that wins the game, and they hit more tough ones than we did tonight,” Winfield said.
Lambert and Mulitalo were seemingly in the zone throughout the night. But outside of Sam Ballstaedt’s 14 points, no other Wildcat scored more than one basket in the game. Zane Ramsey, who connected on a 3-pointer late in the third quarter, contributed seven rebounds and three assists.
“They’re two of the best players in the area. That’s the reality of it,” Winfield said about Mulitalo and Lambert. “We’ve got other guys capable to help them out offensively; they’ve just got to play with a little bit more confidence and a little bit more consistency, and we’ll start rattling off some wins.”
Meanwhile, the Blues’ offensive balance seemed to pay off in the end. Beyond the big games from Jones and Catlett, Braedyn Houck tallied 15 points, Langston Cook notched 14 points and six rebounds, and Evan Cook recorded 11 points and four assists.
While Lambert and Mulitalo were the only Wildcats to score in the last eight minutes, each of the five PM starters got on the board in the final frame. The Blues also controlled the tempo down the stretch, netting 25 points in the fourth quarter.
“I want us to attack all the time – but attack it and share it,” Kerr said. “We share the ball really well, especially in transition. I thought Rockbridge did a really good job of taking us out of out transition offense early on tonight, but in the second half we got going a little bit, found some easy buckets.”
PM opened the game with a 9-2 spurt that included 3-pointers from Houck and Evan Cook, only to see the Wildcats race back to knot the score at 9-9 on a Mulitalo basket at the 2:43 mark of the opening period. The Blues held a slim 16-15 lead at the end of the quarter.
The ’Cats built up a 31-23 advantage on Lambert’s driving layup with 2:27 remaining in the second stanza, but PM countered with a 12-2 run, taking a 35-33 lead on Jones’ transition bucket with 31 seconds left. Lambert put RC up one on a three-point play with 12.7 seconds to go, but Langston Cook’s baseline runner beat the buzzer to give PM a 37-36 halftime edge.
The teams traded hoops throughout the third frame, and the score was knotted at 54-54 with just over a minute remaining. RC tallied the final five points of the quarter, including a fastbreak hoop from Ballstaedt in the closing seconds that made it 59-54.
Lambert hit the opening shot of the fourth period for a 61-54 advantage, and – despite back-to-back triples from Jones – the Wildcats still led 65-61 with 5:24 to go.
That’s when the Blues kicked into overdrive. Catlett connected on a pair of free throws to make it 65-63, and Houck would give PM the lead for good (66-65) on a trey at the 4:39 mark. Jones had two key baskets as the run continued, bookending his hoops around buckets from Evan Cook, Houck and Catlett.
Lambert knocked down two triples in the final 17 seconds to make things interesting. But after his first 3-pointer pulled RC to within 76-72, Evan Cook converted a pair of free throws with 14.9 seconds left. And once Lambert connected again from downtown with just over three seconds to go, Langston Cook iced the victory by going 1-of-2 at the line with 0.6 seconds remaining.
Close losses are becoming an unfortunate trend for the Wildcats, as last Wednesday marked their fifth defeat this season by seven points or fewer.
“We’re right there. We’re just not making enough of the plays that we need to make as a team to get there,” Winfield said. “We’ve got to do some things different: get some different people the ball, get some better opportunities for guys, and we’re going to try to find a way to do that.”
And after falling by margins of six and seven points in the two meetings with RC last year, the shoe is now on the other foot for the Blues.
“We’re just keeping the train rolling… finding ways to win and doing it as a team,” Kerr said. “The biggest thing is maximum effort. I don’t think anybody out there tonight can say they didn’t give it their all.”
RC was scheduled to play at Fort Defiance last night and returns to Valley District action at home against Spotswood on Friday, beginning with the junior varsity contest at 5:30 p.m. PM was slated to play at Nelson County last Friday, a game that will be reported on in next week’s newspaper due to the early New Year’s deadline, and is scheduled to entertain Pioneer District rival Highland County, with the varsity game only at 7 p.m. on Friday. The Wildcats and Blues will then square off again in Buena Vista at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
