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Wildcats Play ‘With Heavy Hearts’ After Ramsey’s Injury
In a challenging second week of the season, the Rockbridge County High School boys basketball team suffered three losses, falling at East Rockingham last Monday before coming up short at home against Waynesboro last Wednesday and against Stuarts Draft on Friday.
The Wildcats (0-4 overall, 0-1 district) started the week with a 78-59 loss in their Valley District opener at East Rockingham.
It was a close game early, with the Eagles (4-1, 1-0) leading 14-12 after the first quarter. ER then outscored RC 21-10 in the second quarter to take a 35-22 halftime lead. The Eagles would stay comfortably ahead for the rest of the game, pulling away in the second half.
ER’s Camden Clem led all players with 21 points, sinking three 3-pointers, while teammate Michael Smith scored 14 points. Also scoring in double figures for the Eagles were Gunnar Cash with 12 points and Trestan Jones with 11.
Bradi Ziegler led RC with 18 points, making three 3-pointers, while Noah Hamm scored 15 points, and Gardner Clement added seven. Also contributing to the Wildcats’ scoring were Brayden Camden and Clay Irvine with five points each and Zane Ramsey with four.
The Wildcats made seven 3-pointers, while the Eagles knocked down six.
WHS 61, RC 42
The Wildcats suffered a 61-42 home loss to Waynesboro in nondistrict action Wednesday at Maury River Middle School in Lexington.
Sam Ballstaedt opened the scoring for the Cats with a 3-pointer, and Clement made a three-point play to give RC a 6-4 lead. Waynesboro (1-4) responded with back-to-back pointers from Timmy Dixon and Kaveon Washington. Camden and Zane Ramsey would both tack on layups for RC before the end of quarter, when the Wildcats trailed 14-10.
In the second quarter, Ziegler made two of his five 3-pointers, and Ballsteadt also knocked down a triple. Waynesboro got the ball 10 seconds before halftime, and Deonta Brown sank a 3-pointer to give the Little Giants a 31-19 halftime lead.
Brown hit another 3-pointer right out of halftime to put Waynesboro up 34-19.
A rough night then turned worse when, three minutes into the third quarter, Ramsey came down from a rebound and suffered a fractured leg. After receiving immediate care from the athletic trainer and coaches, Emergency Medical Services personnel got Ramsey on a stretcher and took him off the court, with applause from fans, coaches and teammates.
“He’s a great kid,” said head coach Rob Winfield of Ramsey, a senior starting forward. “He’s the heart, the effort, the energy. When he went down and then to ask the guys to play … The guys did the absolute best they could. That’s the reality of it. There were a lot of reasons why tonight wasn’t our night.” Ramsey had surgery on Friday before returning home and is expected to have to sit out the rest of the season.
The Little Giants took a 48-22 lead into the fourth quarter, when the Wildcats got a spark from Ziegler, who hit four 3-pointers to cut the lead to 54-36. It wouldn’t be enough. Camden and Clements would score six more points combined against another seven from Waynesboro before the clock expired.
Proud of his players for pushing through after Ramsey’s injury, Winfield said, “Everyone who put on a jersey tonight, to come back out of that locker room after what happened, really shows you their character.”
Ziegler led the Wildcats with 15 points, while Camden and Ballstaedt each scored nine, and Clement chipped in six. Ramsey scored two points in the first quarter before his injury.
Winfield praised Camden and Ziegler, both sophomores, for their efforts in the game. “Those are young kids getting valuable minutes,” he said. “It’s good for them.”
Dixon led Waynesboro with 13 points, sinking three 3-pointers, while Brown scored 12 points, and Isaiah Goldsmith added 11, making three 3-pointers. Also scoring in double figures for the Little Giants was Washington with 10 points.
SD 54, RC 42
The Wildcats concluded a trying week with their closest game of the season, falling 54-42 at home against Stuarts Draft in nondistrict action on Friday night at MRMS.
It was a much closer game than the Wildcats’ season opener on Dec. 4 at Draft, when the Cougars (3-3) won 60-37.
The Wildcats started well on Friday, taking a 24-21 lead after the first quarter. RC made six 3-pointers in the quarter, while the Cougars made five.
In the second quarter, Draft outscored the Wildcats 10-5 to take a 31-29 lead into halftime. The game was close almost the entire night, but Draft pulled away in the fourth quarter by outscoring the Wildcats 12-3.
Hamm led RC with 15 points, sinking four 3-pointers, three in the first quarter. In his first start, stepping in for Ramsey, who had successful surgery earlier in the day, Ziegler scored 12 points, making two triples. Luke Eversole and Ballstaedt each chipped in five points, including one 3-pointer apiece.
It was the first varsity start for Ziegler, who moved up from the junior varsity squad in the middle of his freshman season last winter. “I thought he played well,” said Winfield.
Derrick Moore led Draft with 15 points, Landon Graber scored eight points, and Jay Brown had seven points. Chipping in six points each for the Cougars were Christian Moats, Marko Veselinovic and Denzel Diggs.
RC and Draft each made eight 3-pointers.
Proud of his team for battling the Cougars with a lot on their minds and in their hearts, Winfield said, “It’s been a very tough week … We need to get to the point where it’s not moral victories, but finishing that game out Wednesday night and focusing as much as we can focus, with heavy hearts. Every one of these guys is thinking about Zane … Everybody’s thinking about him, and to find an hour or two where the guys can lock in and do that is exceptional.”
The Wildcats were scheduled to play host to district rival Broadway last night and will have a rematch at Waynesboro tonight, Wednesday, starting with JV action at 6 p.m. On Friday and Saturday, the Wildcats will travel to Roanoke for the Titan Basketball Invitational at Hidden Valley High School.
After Christmas, the Wildcats will play host to local rival Parry McCluer next Friday, Dec. 27, back at the RC gym, with the varsity boys’ game scheduled for 5:30 p.m.. The day will start with the JV girls’ game at 1 p.m., followed by the JV boys’ game at 2:30 p.m. and the varsity girls’ game at 4 p.m.
