ROANOKE, Va. – VHSL State Semifinal action was on display Monday night across the Commonwealth as teams battled to reach the state finals in Classes 1, 2, 3 and 4.
In Class 1 girls action, Parry McCluer toted a 26-1 record into their matchup with Honaker. Despite battling hard, the Fighting Blues came up short 49-28.
In Class 1 boys action, Auburn dominated Twin Springs 63-39 behind 26 points and 6 assists from the All-State guard Ethan Millirons. The Eagles will play for their second title in three years when they tipoff with Washington & Lee on Saturday at 6:30 at VCU’s Seigel Center.
In Class 2, we saw a rematch of the Region C final between Radford and James River. In what was a tightly contested game, the Bobcats and Knights needed two overtime periods. In the end it would be the Bobcats who prevailed 49-47.
Carroll County’s Alyssa Ervin dropped 35 points as the Lady Cavaliers defeated Spotswood 69-45. They will play Meridian in the Championship game Thursday at 6 pm at VCU’s Seigel Center.
“I feel like as staff we’ve coached harder than we’ve ever coached but our kids have bought in,” said Radford coach Rick Cormany. “They decided they wanted to do this and I thought we defended pretty well tonight, played really hard, and we battled.”
We had the fourth installment of Northside versus Cave Spring in the Class 4 boys semifinal. The Vikings couldn’t miss on their jumpers in the first quarter, jumping to an 18-7 lead. The Knights calmed down and locked in defensively while Dylan Saunders cranked up the intensity on offense with his game-high 22 points. Northside trailed by 1 point with under one minute to play when Kai Logan missed a three-pointer but was subsequently fouled in the process. He went to the line and made 1-of-3 shots, tying the game at 56.
With just 1.9 seconds on the clock, Cave Spring ran one final play that would be the difference maker. They inbounded the ball to Bryce Cooper who drove to the paint and released the ball just in time to make the game-winning layup. Cave Spring walked away with the 58-56 victory.
“We drew up the play and it’s usually for a three pointer but he just said grab it and go to the cup,” Cooper said.
“They just hit shot after shot after shot and I felt like we were taking punch after punch but they couldn’t hit the knockout and we settled in, ended up tying it and our guys are resilient. They handle adversity really well,” said head coach Jacob Gruse.
Cave Spring will play Petersburg in the Class 3 State Championship, Thursday at 8 p.m. at VCU’s Seigel Center.
Pulaski County girls’ season came to an end with an overtime loss at Millbrook. The Lady Cougars finished the season at 23-4.