Glenvar’s basketball team got a peek at the other side of the hump Monday night in the Floyd County gym.
Problem was, they couldn’t get over it.
Rallying from 16 points down midway through the third quarter, the Highlanders got it to a one possession game 6 times in the final quarter, including 58-57 after a Cory Thompson 3-pointer with just over two minutes to play, but Floyd County answered each time to collect the 70-61 win in the Three Rivers District matchup rescheduled to Monday after last week’s snow and frigid temperatures.
“We kept fighting, but just couldn’t get over the hump,” Glenvar head coach Dave Redding noted afterward. “I know it’s a cliche, but we’re a young team that’s still learning. We need to focus on each possession. We got it to one point. A shot falls here, a rebound there, and the outcome could have been different.”
Glenvar junior guard Jeremy Williams was the guy that nearly put that elusive hump in his back pocket. Williams was the catalyst of the Highlander comeback, using a varying assortment of driving layups when Glenvar ran their full court breaks, and hitting several pull-up jumpers when the Buffaloes packed the defense. Williams finished with a team-high 29 points for the Highlanders.
“Jeremy hasn’t had to be the man the team has to go through” Redding added. “He played great tonight and got us back in it.”
The teams were neck-to-neck in the opening quarter before Floyd broke to a 15-13 lead right before the buzzer.The Buffaloes used a pair of Caleb Tanner long-range 3-pointers to help establish a 34-25 advantage going to the halftime break.
Floyd started pulling away to start the second half, opening with a 12-5 run that pushed their lead to 46-30.with 4:33 left in the third quarter. Glenvar began chipping away and the Highlanders finished the quarter with a 12-2 run of their own, slicing the Floyd lead to 48-42 heading to the final frame.
Glenvar closed to 52-50 with 5:15 left, 58-57 nearly three minutes later and trailed 60-57 with 2:19 left, The final 120 seconds saw Justin Conduff hit a 3-pointer and the Buffaloes hit 7-of-8 free throws to cap off a 10-4 spurt that sealed the deal.
“We made key baskets in the clutch and were disciplined,” Buffaloes head coach Brian Harman noted .”Caleb is going to get a lot of attention so we needed to do our sets. Our rebounding tonight was huge. Our role players are going to have to get the job done. As teams key on our strengths, it’s their turn to shine and that’s their job.”
Tanner had a game-high 29 points for Floyd County, including four 3-pointers and 11-of-12 from the charity stripe. Will Cook netted 15 for the Buffs while Conduff poured in 14.
In addition to Williams’ 29, Austin Fox added 10 points for Glenvar.
The countdown for Caleb Tanner’s race to the all-time VHSL career scoring record set in 1997 by Twin Spring’s Stacy Ervin continued. Tanner is 198 points shy of breaking Ervin’s record 0f 2,687 points.
– Bill Turner