Salem, Cave Spring Tune-Up For Post Season

Last Saturday’s 44-40 loss to Salem in a game that decided the River Ridge District regular season championship might have laid out a blueprint other schools can use as they try to prevent Cave Spring from repeating as the Group AA Region 3 state champs.  That is, double and triple team Knights 7’ center Josh Henderson, and confront Billy Hicks’ team head on with a heavy dose of athleticism.

Cave Spring trailed for most of the game, stormed back to take a lead late and then lost in overtime. They were without the services of the Vanderbilt-bound Henderson, who fouled out late in regulation. “We knew coming in that Josh Henderson was a great player,” said Reggie Barnette, one of the Spartans who gave the Knights fits. His brother Stephen was another one.

“You can’t really stop him, you can only limit him,” said Barnette. “Whenever he got the ball in the paint we tried to get a couple of bodies on him.” Salem and Cave Spring could meet in the River Ridge playoffs but not again after that, since Salem is a Region IV team.

Barnette said it was a good confidence booster for his club to beat the Knights in a big contest. “That’s like a state [playoff] caliber game. If we go into every game in the playoffs …with that mentality, we’ll be all right.”

Cave Spring head coach Billy Hicks was proud of his team’s effort in a losing cause. “We’ve got more basketball to play,” he noted. But there were lessons to be learned from the Salem game, played in an almost-full gym on a neutral site at Hidden Valley High School.

“We’re not physically strong; our guards are small,” admitted Hicks.  He also said his squad made some mistakes consistently all year long. “We’re playing with seniors. These lessons should be learned. If we’re going to make a post season run we’ve got to learn from that and correct it.”