Blues Fall To Floyd, Trounce Bath
The Parry McCluer High School boys basketball team split a pair of games last week, cruising to a 94-35 home win over Pioneer District rival Bath County on Thursday before falling to Floyd County 70-60 in the annual Adam Ward Classic on Saturday in Salem.
With the win over Bath (3-14 overall, 1-7 district) in their first game in 13 days due winter storm Fern and the deep freeze that followed, the Fighting Blues (15-3) improved to 7-0 in the Pioneer District. The 94 points were the most for PM in a single game this season.
The Blues dominated the Chargers in the first half of the game on the glass and in the paint. At halftime, PM led 6010. The Blues took advantage of Bath’s shaky offense and scored a lot of points in transition. Quentin Rosser and Jamier Jordan led the Blues defensively with five steals each.
Jordan and Langston Cook paced PM’s offense in the first half. For the game, Cook led PM with 24 points and four assists and had four steals. Jordan, who shot 3-of-5 from three-point range, scored 17 points and had three assists.
PM head coach Tyler Kerr said that the way Bath played was a big reason for the spike in steals. “They had a plan to hold the ball a bit more against us and cut into our touches,” said Kerr. “That allowed us to trap them a bit more and get deflections, and deflections lead to steals.”
In the second half, the Blues got many of their reserves valuable minutes. One of them, sophomore Brody Coleman, scored 10 points and had six rebounds and three assists. At the end of the third quarter, the Blues led 83-31.
With a running clock in effect for the third and fourth quarter because the lead was 30 points or more, the Blues maintained possession of the ball for the majority of the remainder of the game.
Kerr said the biggest takeaway from the contest for him was “the way that we shared the ball, we played so hard defensively. The way we played defensively, I would have really felt good about our odds against anyone. It was a great game to get our legs back underneath us.”
FC 70, PM 60
On Saturday, the Blues tipped off late Saturday morning against Floyd County, a Three Rivers District team, and came up short 70-60 at the 10th annual Adam Ward Classic at Salem High School.
The event honors the memory of 2007 Salem High School alumnus Adam Ward, a WDBJ photojournalist who was killed by a gunman during a broadcast at Smith Mountain Lake in August of 2015.
The loss to Floyd County (123), a larger Class 2 school, ended a 15-game winning streak for the Blues. Last year, Floyd made it to the Class 3 state semifinals, falling 62-61 to state runner-up Graham.
Kerr was complimentary of the contest, saying that it had all the makings of a regional tournament game with the back-andforth nature of the showdown.
“Through three quarters, I thought that we played very good basketball,” said Kerr. “In the fourth, I think our legs got to us. After that long layoff, it’s expected.”
The Blues were tied with the Buffaloes going into the fourth quarter, 46-46, before fatigue set in. “Our kids gave us the best opportunity, going into the fourth tied up,” said Kerr. “We wore down in the fourth. Our help side [defense] started to give a bit.”
Cook led the Blues with 31 points, while Gavin Swortzel paced Floyd with 17 points. Daecan Slaughter added 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Buffaloes, and teammate Noah Farley scored 13 points.
Praising Cook, Kerr said, “Langston plays his best basketball when the games mean the most. He is a gamer. As amazing of a player he is, he is just an amazing teammate and kid as well.”
“He had an amazing game,” Kerr continued. “They [the Buffaloes] were on him, knowing he was the guy, and the level that he was still able to play at was phenomenal.”
The Blues were scheduled to play host to Highland County for their senior night on Monday before traveling to Craig County last night. They’ll conclude the regular season at Narrows on Thursday, starting with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m., with the varsity game scheduled to follow at 7.
For the Blues’ Pioneer District tournament schedule next week and updates, visit www.thenewsgazette. com.
ABOVE, PM junior guard Jamier Jordan looks for an open teammate while a Bath County player guards him. Jordan scored 17 points and had five steals and three assists. AT LEFT, Fighting Blue senior forward Nathan Glass (15) and a Charger leap for a jump ball. Glass scored 13 points and pulled down three rebounds. (Ronnie Coffey photos)
