(Photography courtesy Tina Quesenberry)
Max Meadows…The Fort Chiswell Pioneers came out a little sluggish and committed turnovers at the wrong times as they lost to the Galax Maroon Tide 54-52 in their opening round game of the First Community Bank Christmas Tournament held at Fort Chiswell High School.
Galax only put one player, Ethan Robinson,scored double figures with 13 points, but he scored five of those down the stretch to pull out the victory. Cade Ashworth pumped in nine points, Gage Cooke chipped in eight and Keaton Beeman scored seven.
The Pioneers (3-3) were lead by Isaiah Ramsey with 19 points. Tanner Bailey had 12 and Matthew Musick pumped in 11 as he stroked three three-pointers. “We didn’t value the basketball tonight,” said a dejected Fort Chiswell head coach Derrick Jackson. “We had too many defensive lapses and we were only six of 15 in the second half from the charity stripe. We are in a rut and we’ve got to work through it.”
The loss means the Pioneers will face the Alleghany (NC) Trojans. The George Wythe Maroons 72-43 subdued the Trojans. George Wythe (5-0) got 27 points from Jake Martin, 13 from Josh Reeves and Noah Atwood produced 11 for the Maroons. Alleghany got 13 points from Ryan Sturgill and 11 by Alex Pruitt. “We didn’t play that well,” said Geo. Wythe head coach Pat Burns. The Maroons will now take on the undefeated Grayson Co. Blue Devils in the second round.
Grayson Co. (6-0) got a game high 21 points from Wes Ayers and 19 from Seth Phillips. They had plenty of help from Tanner McPherson and Jake Hollandsworth. McPherson finished with 18 and Hollansworth had 14 as they defeated the Falcons of Abingdon 81-67. The game featured 12 lead changes as the two undefeated teams squared off. Abingdon got 21 points apiece from Ean Bassham and Tommy Francisco.
In the other first round game Radford Bobcats demolished Auburn 66-38. Miles Jones pumped in 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for his double -double. Jaylen Phillips came off the bench to score 10 for the (5-0) Cats. Junior sensation Quinton Morton-Robertson had eight assists and scored seven points in the Radford win. Auburn got 10 points from Daniel Brotherton and nine from freshman Austin Ford.