Maroons Hold Off Blues

PM Boys Close Season With Record Of 22-5

By Jeffrey Tomlin

The Parry McCluer High School boys basketball team’s season came to an end with a 77-70 loss to George Wythe in the Region 1C finals on Friday at Virginia Tech’s Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg.

The Fighting Blues (22-5), the top seed from the Pioneer District, cut a 12-point halftime lead down to five in the fourth quarter, but the Maroons (20-7), the second seed from the Mountain Empire District, held on for the win to advance to the regional championship game. With the win, GW earned a berth in the Class 1 state tournament. PM and GW also met last year in the regional semifinals, when the Maroons cruised to a 75-48 win.

In a thrilling regional championship game on Saturday night, GW came up short against Auburn 54-52 in four overtimes. Both Auburn and GW advanced to the Class 1 state tournament.

GW, which fell to Lancaster in the state championship game last year, led from start to finish, taking a 25-11 lead over the Blues after the first quarter on Friday and led 41-29 at halftime. The Blues chipped into the lead, but they were unable to come back. The Maroons had a strong offensive rebounding performance to help get extra shot opportunities.

In the closing moments of the game, George Wythe made 10-of-12 free throws to fend off PM’s comeback attempt.

The Maroons held the Blues to their lowest-scoring tally in seven games and snapped PM’s six-game winning streak.

Leading the Blues were their three seniors. Landon Catlett paced PM with 22 points, JJ Jones added 19 points and Evan Cook chipped in 14.

Reed Kirtner led GW with 20 points, David Goode added 16 points, and Shane Huff chipped in 10.

It was the end of an impressive year for the Blues under second-year head coach Tyler Kerr. PM went 10-1 in the Pioneer District, losing only to Narrows, and won the district tournament, beating defending champion Narrows 74-61 in the district finals. The two teams had split the regular-season series before the Blues won the first-place game 90-74 to win the regular- season title just before the Pioneer District tournament. The Blues improved on last year’s 17-10 overall record.

While the Blues will miss their seniors, they have promising underclassmen who will return, led by junior Braedyn Houck, sophomore Nathan Glass and freshman Langston Cook.

PM 73, Galax 49

The Blues cruised to a 73-49 home win over Galax in the Region 1C quarterfinals on Tuesday of last week in Buena Vista.

Galax, the fourth seed from the Mountain Empire District, started the game by stunning the Blues with three 3-pointers, from Sean Lundy and Josh Jamison. The Maroon Tide (9-15) led 13-6 before Jones made PM’s first 3-pointer of the game to cut the lead 13-9. At the end of the first quarter, Galax led 17-11.

With PM trailing 20-19, Jones stole the ball and took it end-to-end to make a layup, giving the Blues their first lead of the game, 21-20. Jones followed with a three-point play and 3-pointer to extend PM’s lead to 27-20. Jones added another pair of throws, and Catlett added five points to help the Blues take a 36-23 halftime lead.

“That’s when we started to really run the floor and that’s how we like to play,” said Kerr. “That style of play starts to wear on you and we’re conditioned for it. I think we handled it well.”

Houck and Jones each hit a 3-pointer to open the scoring for PM in the second half, as the Blues extended their lead to 41-27. Houck made two 3-pointers in the quarter, including one at the buzzer, to lead the Blues into the fourth quarter with a 56-38 lead. PM outscored Galax 20-15 in the quarter.

Just under half of the Blues’ points in the fourth quarter came from Galax forcing foul shots in an attempt to get back into the game. PM outscored Galax 17-11 in the fourth quarter. While adding their own points from the field, PM went 6-of-8 from the free throw line in the quarter.

Jones led the Blues with 32 points, while Houck scored a season-high 16 points, and Langston Cook chipped in 10 points.

Giving the Maroon Tide credit for challenging the Blues, Kerr said, “Whenever you go against a team from the Mountain Empire District, it’s going to be a tough game. They play in a really tough district and gave us a hard time, especially at the start.”

Kerr said that the Blues’ maturity to not lose focus after an early deficit was a key to their success.