Jefferson Forest opened play in Thursday’s first round of the K-Guard Classic with designs on running with the Cave Spring Knights.
JF quickly found it had its hands full on the Salem Civic Center Center hardwood as the Knights put its offense in high gear for the 96-70 runaway win.
“Our transition game was great tonight,” Cave Spring head coach Billy Hicks said in the Knights locker room afterward. “We still need a lot of work on defense, but our offense was good. It was a mix of inside and out , and we got out to a nice lead that let us substitute a lot.”
Cave Spring scored the game’s first seven points and led 19-14 after one quarter. A 10-2 run opened the second quarter for the Knights, and they jumped to a 53-38 advantage heading to the halftime break after brothers Brody and Cager Hicks scored 17 and 12 points, respectfully in the first 16 minutes.
The Knights lead ballooned to 71-52 late in the third before the teams went to the final stanza with Cave Spring comfortably in control 74-59.
Jefferson Forest closed to 76-67 with 6:25 left, but the Knights put things away with a 16-2 run that emphatically closed the door.
Cave Spring got every player in the game down the stretch as the only question was if the Knights would crack the century mark.
Brody Hicks led the Cave Spring offensive attack with a career-high 30 points. Knight sophomore Adam Sledd ruled the paint, scoring 20 points on 10-for-10 field goal shooting. Cager Hicks added 14 points while 7 other Knights got in the scoring column.
“Brody was going after the ball all night,” Billy Hicks added. “Adam has really come around. We got him some good touches in the paint tonight.”
Jefferson Forest guard Tyler Lucy had a game-high 31 points, with Hunter McConville and Makil Stewart each adding 9 for the Cavs.
In earlier first-round K-Guard action involving ” Big-11 ” teams, Hidden Valley fell 73-67 to the Abingdon Falcons as JJ DeVaughn scored 17 points, Graham Whitaker added 12 and Davion Rice chipped in 11 for the Titans.
Also, Thursday afternoon, William Fleming picked up its first win of the season with a win over Alleghany and Salem surrendered a late 7-point lead and lost in overtime to the Broadway Gobblers.
– Bill Turner
