by Bill Turner
Northside broke open a 22-22 tie with just over 3 minutes left in the third quarter, as the Vikings went on a 13-0 spurt to defeat Cave Spring 43-29 in a non-district matchup last Saturday night at the Knight’s gym.
Cave Spring led midway through the third before Northside took advantage of turnovers and a sudden cold shooting hand by the Knight offense. Trey Smith led the Viking scoring with 21 points and Todd Dunbar added 8. Cave Spring, although limited to 29 points, had eight players in the scoring column with Storm Furrow and Grant Backlund each scoring six.
Northside improved to 8-5 overall ( 1-1 Blue Ridge) Cave Spring fell to 3-10; 1-2 River Ridge) Afterward, Northside head coach Billy Pope summed up the late Viking surge. “We started making some plays on defense that got us some easy shots,” Pope noted. ” Trey Smith came up with some key shots.”
As for the upcoming Blue Ridge district run for Northside, Pope added ” There’s a lot of games left. There can be shifts in momentum as district play continues. For any team there can be a slip up or injury. Northside will be in the hunt.”
As for the young Knight team, head coach Billy Hicks saw the game slip away, noting of the Northside rally, ” We didn’t take care of the ball. Our offense doesn’t have the ability to score a lot of points in a hurry when we fell behind.”
