Cave Spring Advances To Regional Berth With 70-44 Win Over Demons

Cave Spring's Zac Foutz disrupts a scoring attemp by Christiansburg's Xavier Kane Monday night in the Knights' 70-44 win. It was Foutz's first game back since a December knee injury.
Cave Spring’s Zac Foutz disrupts a scoring attemp by Christiansburg’s Xavier Kane Monday night in the Knights’ 70-44 win. It was Foutz’s first game back since a December knee injury.

After eleven days of weather-related disruptions, some rust on the wheels was to be expected in Monday night’s 3A Conference 32 boys basketball semifinal between the Cave Spring Knights and Christiansburg Blue Demons.

Christiansburg had fought back from an early 17 point deficit to cut the Cave Spring lead to 6 points at the 5:07 mark of the third quarter and were on the line for a free throw to make it 5.

That’s when Quinton Clayborne’s attempt to complete a 3-point play rattled off the rim and the wheels came off the track for the Blue Demons.

The Knights followed with a bomb from behind-the-arc by junior Brody Hicks that ignited a 23-2 run through the rest of the quarter for a 60-33 lead, and Cave Spring coasted the final eight minutes for the 70-44 win.

The #2-seed Knights will travel to #1-seed Blacksburg Wednesday night for the Conference 32 championship. Both teams will advance to the opening round of the 3A West Regional.

Christiansburg, which had defeated Patrick County 63-41 in a Conf.-32 first round game on Friday, opened the scoring Monday night with a quick 3-pointer, but Cave Spring scored the next nine points and led 17-9 after one quarter.

The Knight lead reached 17, before the Blue Demons closed to 36-23 heading to the halftime break.

An 8-1 Blue Demon run to open the second half looked as if if the packed Cave Spring gym was set for a shootout to the finish line, but the Knights turned the tide in a hurry.

“Our guys got a little tired,” Christiansburg head coach Shawn Good noted after the game. “We had the game Friday but hadn’t practiced for 8 days. That can be big. We weren’t being aggressive and we didn’t penetrate.”

Good was likewise upset that there was a huge disparity in fouls to open the second half that had the Demons picking up three in the first 1 1/2 minutes and had Cave Spring in the bonus with over two minutes left in the third quarter.

Good didn’t relent on his frustration, and the coach received his first technical foul of the year during the Knights’ big run.

“I’ve got to defend my guys,” Good said. “I’m going to make sure they know I’m on their side. You try to spur them on. I don’t think it helped any. The free throws were like what…..25-12?”

Cave Spring actually went to the free throw line 27 times, sinking 21, while the Blue Demons only visited the charity stripe 14 times, hitting 8.

The game marked the return of Cave Spring senior Zac Foutz, out since a late-December game against Northside where he suffered a knee injury. Foutz scored 10 points in his return to action. The Liberty University football signee was watched closely by Cave Spring head coach Jacob Gruse and Knight trainer Luke Vance throughout the game to monitor Foutz’s return.

“Zac did a good job tonight,” Gruse said afterward. “He gives our team a huge spark. He was a great sixth man tonight. Before the injury Zac was our leading scorer and rebounder.”

Gruse said the third quarter turnaround was all about defense.

“We weren’t playing defense and they cut the lead to six,” Gruse pointed out. “At that point we could have gotten tight. But, we came out of a timeout and got the fight. Once we decided to play defense it also took care of the offense. We had four guys in double figures, and that’s a consistency you want.”

Brody Hicks had a game-high 17 points for Cave Spring, with Mason Reyer and Cager Hicks each netting 12.

Matt Herndon led Christiansburg with 15 points, with freshman Xavier Kane chipping in 8.

– Bill Turner

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