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In its final home game of the season, the Rockbridge County High School boys basketball team defeated Valley District rival Turner Ashby 67-66 in an overtime thriller on Friday night in Lexington.
After struggling offensively for three quarters against TA, the Wildcats (3-19 overall, 3-8 district) stormed back in the fourth quarter behind senior guard Henry Lambert’s 23 points to defeat the Knights (5-16, 0-11).
With the Senior Night victory, the Wildcats snapped an eight-game losing streak and completed a sweep of the season series with the Knights. When the teams met on Jan. 10 at TA, RC won 61-55.
In the rematch, RC began the contest about as bad as it gets offensively. The Wildcats totaled only 12 points in a first half filled with turnovers and sloppy play.
“They were double-teaming Henry, and we weren’t doing a good job flooding to the ball,” said RC head coach Rob Winfield. “We get times where because he’s a good player, we get caught watching him play sometimes. When he’s getting double-teamed, he knows he needs to score for us to win, so he starts to press a little bit, too.”
Trailing 33-12 at the break, Winfield needed a special message to inspire his team coming out of the locker room.
“Tonight was a different message because it was about them remembering their Senior Night because you only get one of these,” said Winfield. “Not everyone gets to go on to play at the next level, but this was the one night. I always talk about how we need to play for each other and have fun. Tonight, it was play for the seniors.”
The Wildcats opened the second half guns blazing, as the 3-pointers started to fall in bunches. RC outscored the Knights 18-14 in the third quarter but still trailed 47-30 heading into the fourth quarter.
The final period of play belonged to Lambert, leading the comeback charge for the Wildcats, and sinking a huge three with 18 seconds left in the fourth to tie the game 59-59.
“There’s a reason he’s going to go play at Southern Virginia: because he’s a college-level basketball player,” said Winfield of Lambert.
However, with the game tied in the final seconds of regulation, Lambert missed an open look that would have sent an already energized RC crowd into an absolute frenzy.
“Honestly, I thought he was going to make that shot at the end of regulation,” said Winfield. “It was going to him, and I think everybody in the place knew it. [My assistant coach] is telling me we got timeouts, but once he had the ball, I thought we were in good shape.”
Leading by one in overtime, RC surrendered a foul with three-tenths of a second left, sending the Knights to the free throw line with a chance to win the game. But the loyal RC fans would not let that happen, as both free throw attempts went awry, and the Wildcats escaped with a gutsy win. RC fans stormed the court to celebrate the comeback victory.
Other than Lambert, RC’s leaders were senior center Milo Mulitalo with 17 points, junior forward Sam Ballstaedt with nine points, and freshman guard Bradi Ziegler with eight.
Jayden Lacey led TA with 24 points. The odds haven’t been stacked in the Wildcats’ favor, but Winfield remains proud of the effort he sees from his team leadership, displayed by the five seniors honored before the game: Lambert, Mulitalo, Simon Emore, Ian Johnson and Jackson White.
“[Lambert] is a heck of a player. So is Milo [Mulitalo], and so are the other seniors. The other seniors deserve as much credit as anybody else because they don’t always get the same opportunities. Maybe in a different year and a different position, they would. But they’ve all kept their heads up, they’ve all stayed into it, they’ve all battled,” Winfield said. “For us to play as bad as we did for three quarters … because we played bad … For us to battle back and still have the heart, the desire, and the effort for that group of kids to do that … that means they’re a special group.”
“I want us to go out, compete, have fun, play hard, and then let’s end this thing the way it needs to end,” Winfield said.
Spotswood 89, RC 24
Spotswood remained undefeated, dealing the Wildcats an 89-24 road loss on Tuesday of last week in Penn Laird.
The Trailblazers, who ended the week at 20-0 overall and 10-0 in the district, built up a 35-point halftime lead, 46-11, on the way to cruising past the Wildcats for the second time this season. When the teams met on Jan. 5 in Lexington, Spotswood won 83-40.
Cam Pacheco led Spotswood with 23 points. Zane Ramsey paced the Wildcats with seven points, while Luke Eversole chipped in five, and Ballstaedt had three. The Spotswood defense held Lambert to two points and kept Mulitalo scoreless.
ER 68, RC 64
East Rockingham avenged a previous loss to RC defeating the Wildcats 68-64 last Wednesday in Elkton.
When the teams met on Dec. 15 in Lexington, the Wildcats earned a 79-75 win over the Eagles (9-13, 5-6) for their first victory of the season.
In the rematch, Lambert led the Wildcats with 32 points, and Mulitalo scored 11 points and pulled down 11 rebounds.
The Wildcats were scheduled to conclude the season with a district road game at William Monroe last night. A story on that game, with a season wrap-up, will be in next week’s newspaper.
