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Tuesday, Jan. 23 – Despite a strong shooting night from beyond the arc, the Rockbridge County High School boys basketball team suffered a 75-66 home loss to Valley District rival Harrisonburg on Tuesday night in Lexington.
With the win, the Blue Streaks (11-6 overall, 6-2 district) completed a sweep of the regular-season series with the Wildcats (2-15, 2-6). When the teams met on Dec. 19 at Harrisonburg, the Blue Streaks cruised to a 67-40 victory.
In the rematch, the Wildcats knocked down 13 3-pointers, while Harrisonburg hit three triples.
RC led for most of the first half, fueled by the outside shooting of Sam Ballstaedt and Bradi Ziegler. Ballstaedt hit three 3-pointers in the first few minutes of the game, and Ziegler, a freshman who moved up from the junior varsity team to the varsity level last week, made two of his five 3-pointers in the first half.
RC took a 16-15 lead in the second quarter and led 37-32 at halftime, with Ballstaedt and Henry Lambert each scoring nine points to lead the Wildcats in the first half.
The Wildcats built up a 10 -point lead early in the second half after Lambert hit two jump shots, but Harrisonburg came storming back, with Fausto Hernandez making two 3-pointers to help the Blue Streaks take a 49-48 lead. At the end of the third quarter, Ziegler hit a triple, and RC led 55-53.
In the fourth quarter, the Blue Streaks continued to battle and scored more when RC switched from man-to-man to zone defense, going up 68-60. The Wildcats then got back-to-back 3-pointers from Noah Hamm and Ziegler to cut the visitors’ lead to 68-66. RC fouled to force Harrisonburg to make free throws, and the Blue Streaks converted to put the game away.
Ziegler and Hamm led the Wildcats with 15 points each, with Hamm sinking three 3-pointers, while Lambert added 14 points. Milo Mulitalo battled foul trouble to score 11 points, and Ballstaedt added nine points.
Latham Fields led Harrisonburg with 20 points, while Tiberius Fields scored 11 points. Lazaro Valdivia added 10 points, while Hernandez chipped in 10 points, sinking two 3-pointers.
RC committed 17 turnovers, while Harrisonburg had 12.
The Wildcats will return to action on Wednesday when they play host to nondistrict rival Salem. The evening will start with the JV girls’ game at 4:30 p.m., followed by the JV boys’ game at 6, and the varsity boys’ game is scheduled for 7:30.
For the full stories on this week’s action, with photos from Friday’s game, please see our Jan. 31 newspaper. Coverage of last week’s action will be in this Wednesday’s newspaper.
