by Bill Turner
We’re on the regular season home stretch with several district champions already crowned. Others are still in the balance with key games on the slate Friday night. District tournament action begins Friday February 13th as many teams face make or break contests in their quest for the road to Richmond. Let’s take a look at this week’s Wild Bill ‘Big-11’ Top-5.
#1-Patrick Henry: The Patriots hold firm in the top spot after their win over George Washington of Danville Tuesday night. PH (16-3) can clinch the Western Valley title with a win Friday night. For the record, PH has held the #1 spot since week one.
#2- Northside: The Vikings (12-7) move up after their win over William Byrd Tuesday night. Billy Pope’s squad keeps getting stronger and a date against Rockbridge County, although not likely enough to win the Blue Ridge, will give clues on how they may fare in postseason play.
#3- William Fleming: Fleming falls to third after a loss at Franklin County. Irregardless, the Colonels may have enough firepower to make a statement in the Western Valley. Expect the regular season finale at PH to be a shootout in front of an overflow crowd.
#4- Glenvar: The Highlanders continue to impress with a 15-6 record. They remain in the hunt for a first-round bye in the Three Rivers. Radford and Floyd County will be formidable opposition come tournament time.
#5- Hidden Valley: The Titans improved to 4-3 in the ever-tough River Ridge with Tuesday night’s win over Pulaski County. Hidden Valley controls its own destiny for a second place finish behind undefeated Christiansburg, but the road will be tough. The Titans close out district play with a pair of games against Salem and the big rivalry game at Cave Spring.
Now, to the mailbag, where a reader posed an interesting question on winning vs losing.
Dear Wild Bill: With teams, from high school and college, notorious for scheduling easy opponents to insure wins – which is more likely in high school basketball – an undefeated team or a team that is winless? (Adam/Lynchburg)
Answer: Great question, Adam. And, after some research, the answer was surprising.
In Southwest Virginia, there’s only one undefeated team – the Galax boys. On the other side of the ledger, six teams are winless – 2 boys and 4 girls.
Finally, we close this week with the adage, ‘he who laughs last, laughs best’.
As many of you readers are aware, after some Hokie faithful blamed the Tech bowl woes on a curse, I offered to Ouija a Tech win. Result: no takers on the offer. Many suggested the stunt was ridiculous. Last week, in this column, I gave advance notice that I would “Ouija-a-win” for a local team. To avoid suggestion of a scam, I went to the sideline scorer, students and game announcer last week to give notice of the upcoming effort.
Tuesday night, in appropriate regalia, of course, (envision a fuzzy purple hat) I attended the Cave Spring Lady Knight basketball game, Ouija Board in tow. The Cave Spring girls squad, who entered the contest 0-19, came away with the 40-36 win over, ironically (or maybe not), Blacksburg.
Just want to point out, the Lady Knights are now 1-19. Tech is 1-27 against Top-5 football opponents. If this were the American League West, the CS girls would be four games up.
See you next week.
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