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Saturday, Jan. 27 – The Parry McCluer High School boys basketball team won a back-and-forth battle against Gretna 69-65 in the 10th annual Rock the Ribbon Roundball Shootout on Saturday afternoon at Rockbridge County High School.
The nondistrict win was the 11th consecutive victory for the Fighting Blues (14-3), who had cruised to victories over Pioneer District rivals Eastern Montgomery and Highland County earlier this week.
With just under 30 seconds left in Saturday’s game, with PM leading 63-62, the Blues got a huge play from Nathan Glass, who was knocked down and made a basket before converting a free throw for a three-point play. Evan Cook then hit two free throws to extend the Blues’ lead to 67-62, and teammate Landon Catlett made a pair of free throws to put PM up by seven points. Amare Gunn made a 3-pointer for the Hawks (7-9) before the final buzzer sounded, leaving the Blues to celebrate.
The game was close the whole way, with the Blues leading 23-22 after the first quarter and taking a 37-34 lead into halftime. At the end of the third quarter, the Blues were up 55-49.
PM’s JJ Jones led all players with 20 points, and the Blues had three other double-digit scorers. Langston Cook scored 14 points and was named to the all-tournament team, Glass added 11 points, and Catlett scored 10 points. Also contributing to the Blues’ scoring were Evan Cook with nine points and Braedyn Houck with five.
Leading Gretna were Ryder Brooks and K’Mari Chatten with 14 points each, while Gunn, Rayshaun Logan and Ryder Brooks scored 11 points each. Logan was named to the all-tournament team.
The Blues will return to district action on Tuesday when they play host to Bath County, starting with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m.
For the full stories on this week’s action, with photos from Saturday’s game, please see our Jan. 31 newspaper.
