Tuesday night’s basketball game between William Byrd and Cave Spring came down to a tale of two halves.
In the opening half, Byrd was pouncing on loose balls and hitting from the perimeter. Cave Spring roared back to take center stage in the second.
In the end, Byrd breathed a sigh of relief when Knight Brody Hicks’ potential game-tying three-pointer rimmed out in the final 15 seconds and junior Jake Furrow’s layup rolled off the rim seconds later, allowing the Terriers to escape with the 65-62 win in the season opener for both squads.
“We’ll take that look 100 time out of 100,” Cave Spring head coach Jacob Gruse noted in the Knight locker room afterward of the late-game miss.. “It’s halfway down. We can’t get a better look.”
The potential for overtime had been set up in the final two minutes after Cave Spring trailed 60-52.
Hicks hit two free throws with 1:23 left that cut the Terrier lead to 61-56. Byrd’s Will Culicerto returned the favor moments later by canning a pair from the charity stripe to put the Terriers up 63-56.
Cave Spring then scored the next five points on a bomb by Hicks and a breakaway layup off a steal by Knight senior Mason Reyer that cut the Byrd advantage to 63-61.
Stephen Olsen stretched the Terrier lead to 64-61 on a free throw with 23.6 seconds left before Hicks’ miss was rebounded by Furrow, who was fouled with 8.7 seconds left. Furrow made the first to get Cave Spring to 64-62, but missed the second leading to the close call on the layup and a subsequent 5-player scramble for the ball that sent Byrd to the line with 2.1 seconds remaining. Byrd junior Devon Kasey hit one-of-two free throws to settle the final margin and a last-second desperation heave by the Knights sailed into the rafters.
There didn’t appear to be a chance for a close finish after Byrd dominated the first half, leading by 20 points twice, 29-9 and 32-12, in the second quarter before going to the break up 34-18.
The Terriers were on fire from behind-the-arc and kept grabbing the majority of loose balls on both ends. In the second half, Cave Spring became the aggressor.
“I’m just as proud for the way we fought back in the second half as I’m mad for the way we played in the first,” Gruse said. “In the first half Byrd just kept punching, punching, punching and we just kept taking it. We challenged our guys at halftime and we were the aggressor in the second half. We should be ready to come out and play. This will make us better.”
“We got a little tired and made some questionable decisions in the second half,” Byrd head coach Kevin Tuck noted. “Hitting 50% of our free throws didn’t help. Cave Spring began applying pressure that we can’t simulate in practice. In the second half our effort didn’t change, it was our execution that changed. We’ll learn from it.”
Byrd was led by senior guard Damon Childress’ game-high 27 points. Kasey followed with 10 points for the Terriers who hit 11 3-pointers in the game.
Hicks led Cave Spring with 18 points, with junior guard Jared Steele pouring in 11 points for the Knights.
Bill Turner
