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Blues Beat Highland, Fall To Nelson
The Parry McCluer High School boys basketball team split a pair of games last week, earning a 53-42 home win over Pioneer District rival Highland County last Tuesday before falling at Nelson County 81-69 in nondistrict action on Thursday.
The victory over Highland in the district opener was the third win in a row for the Fighting Blues (4-2).
Highland opened the scoring in the game with a basket from their senior captain, Eli Moore. After a response from PM’s Langston Cook, the score was 2-2 for four minutes into the quarter. Near the end of the quarter, with the score 6-4 for PM, Highland’s Zach Armstrong drove to the basket and scored a layup at the buzzer for the quarter to end 6-6.
PM head coach Tyler Kerr said this was the type of matchup he expected. “They are such a physical team year-to-year,” said Kerr. “I told our guys this before the game. They are strong, and they forced their will on us, but we weathered the storm.”
The second quarter was a more open game, with both teams more than doubling their first quarter scores. After a few free throws from Highland which gave them a lead, PM’s Sam Griffin cut the deficit to 12-9 with a 3-pointer. With Highland leading 14-9, PM’s Langston Cook made a 3-pointer and followed it up with two steals to find Braedyn Houck for back-to-back transition layups to give PM a 16-14 lead.
“We’re starting to get better in transition,’ said Kerr. “Houck is stepping up in that regard. He’s flying down the floor and Langston is rewarding that by finding him.” The final points in the quarter came from a Brayden Holdren 3-pointer and Cook free throws. PM led 21-16 at halftime.
Highland regained the lead at the start of the second half with back-to-back 3-pointers from John Wagner and Armstrong. Houck and Cook combined for the only points for PM’s start of the half. Deep in the quarter, with Highland up 28-27, freshman Quentin Rosser went on a scoring run by himself to give PM a 34-30 lead, and the Blues took a 34-32 lead into the fourth quarter.
The duo of Cook and Houck started the final quarter with a pair of shots. Despite cutting PM’s lead to 38-35, Highland would never retake the lead, and that was the closest the Rams would get. Cook made three-point plays and a 3-pointer to extend the Blues’ lead to 46-37.
“Langston [Cook] really stepped up in the half, got in the lane and got himself going,” said Kerr. “That was a big reason for his points in the second half.”
Houck, sophomore Kyle Smals and Cook all scored points to close out the game in the final two minutes.
Reviewing his team’s performance, Kerr said, “We didn’t shoot well tonight, and a lot of things didn’t go our way. But what I told the team is that a win is a win. It doesn’t matter if you shot well, if it was ugly or pretty, we’re 4-1 and we found a way.”
Cook led the Blues with 26 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and five steals. Houck scored 10 points, while Rosser added nine points and three assists.
NC 81, PM 69
On Thursday, Nelson County completed a sweep of the regular-season series with the Blues to improve to 5-0. In their previous meeting on Dec. 5 at PM, Nelson won 72-54. The Blues had their highest-scoring game of the season.
Cook led the Blues with 34 points and 12 rebounds, and Houck added 18 points.
On Friday, the Blues will visit local rival Rockbridge County at the RC gym, with the varsity game scheduled for 5:30 p.m. The day will start with the junior varsity 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.
The Blues will start the new year at home against North Cross on Thursday, Jan. 2, starting with JV action at 3 p.m. They’ll then play host to RC on Saturday, Jan. 4, with the same schedule as this Friday.
