Physicality can be a dominating factor in high school basketball. Just ask the Floyd County Buffaloes.
In the much-anticipated matchup between the River Ridge Salem Spartans and the talented Three Rivers member Floyd County Saturday afternoon in the Roy Stanley Memorial Shootout at the Salem Civic Center, the rough and tumble physical play of the Spartans was clearly the deciding factor, as Salem coasted to the easy 97-64 win.
“This is why we schedule teams like Salem, Christiansburg and Pulaski County,” Floyd County head coach Brian Harman noted of those River Ridge teams on the Floyd County schedule this year. “We want to play the type of teams that we will have to compete with in Richmond (the site of the VHSL Final-4).”
Harman admitted it was an eye-opening experience for his squad. “Salem is very talented and very physical. We just don’t see this style day-in and day-out in our district.”
While a large part of the sizable crowd was pulling for the hometown Spartans, there was little doubt many were there to watch Floyd County sharpshooter Caleb Tanner continue his pursuit of the all-time VHSL career scoring record of 2,687 points held since 1997 by Stacy Ervin of Twin Springs. Tanner entered Saturday’s game only 98 points shy of surpassing Ervin’s mark.
Tanner finished with 25 points, including 4 bombs from behind the arc, a 4-point play and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. He left the Civic Center 73 points away from the record with regular season games at Bland County on Monday, Radford at home on Wednesday and on the road at Eastern Montgomery Thursday.
“We’ll see how things fall out at Bland,” Harman added. “We’d love to see Caleb get the record on our home court in front of the Floyd fans. That would be special.”
Salem opened Saturday’s game in an up-tempo, physical style against the Buffs. Tanner was quiet in the early part of the first quarter. But, he hit a 3-pointer midway through the opening frame and the floodgates opened. Tanner finished with 11 points in the period as Floyd led 21-20 after one.
Salem began the second quarter with a 10-0 run and the Spartans never looked back. Salem led 51-34 at the half, and 66-50 at the end of the third quarter.
Key to the Salem dominance was big-man Alex Light, who made himself at home in the paint at both ends of the court. Light would finish with a game-high 27 points and equally impressive 19 rebounds. As a team, Salem out rebounded the Buffs 54-17.
“Alex was finishing in the post and bringing down rebounds at both ends,” Salem head coach Kevin Garst noted. “As a team we shot the ball well and got rebounds. Plus, we got some great looks around the basket.”
Salem’s lead increased to 74-55 when Spartan Troy Mann scored with 6:06 left in the game for his 1,000th career point. The Spartans finished on a 21-9 run to establish the final margin.
Tanner was philosophical about the defeat.
“Salem was a physical team, for sure,” he said. “They were a defending state champion and this was a different experience in a big arena. It was humbling; they definitely set us straight.”
In addition to Light and Mann, Salem got 14 points from Isiah Parker. Floyd County complemented Tanner with Jason Cundiff’s 17 points and 12 from Will Cook.
– Bill Turner