It was a waiting game for the Cave Spring boys basketball team Tuesday night in the Salem Spartan gym.
Hold on, stay close and wait for the Spartans’ shots to finally fall clear of the twine.
Recovering from a 51-41 deficit with 3:45 left in the third quarter, Cave Spring rallied to score the final 13 points of the frame, then held on in the final 30 seconds to pull out the 73-72 River Ridge win.
For a while Tuesday night the Cave Spring chances looked bleak as Salem had every imaginable shot finding the mark. Bombs off the glass, 3-point bankers from the side and jump hooks in the paint that all rattled home.
Cave Spring hung on for dear life with some sharpshooting of its own, although 6 Spartan hits from behind-the-arc and 10 points from senior Goran Vukovic sent Salem to the halftime break up 42-37.
The Knights had stayed close with 13 points from senior Brody Hicks and 11 more from senior Mason Reyer in the opening half.
Salem doubled its advantage to ten points at 51-41 when a defensive change by the Knights suddenly played havoc with the Spartan offense. The heretofore Spartan baskets turned to misfires, and Cave Spring began chipping away.
Hicks, the Liberty University signee who finished with a game-high 31 points, got the ball rolling with a 3-pointer and layup that cut the Salem lead to 51-46.
Knight sophomore Devin Beckner then put on a one-man highlight reel, with steals and gathering loose balls that led to his scoring on three straight acrobatic driving layups that pushed Cave Spring to a 52-51 lead. Hicks finished the third with a pair of free throws that sent the game to the final 8 minutes with the Knights up 54-51.
“We gave them a new defensive perspective and it led to our comeback,” Beckner said of his key heroics. “They were up and had been hitting shots. They didn’t expect it. We needed to get the momentum. We’re confident we can do what it takes to win in any situation.”
“Cave Spring went to a zone and trapped us with their press,” Salem head coach Kevin Garst noted of the sudden change of events. “Suddenly our shots weren’t falling. Our defense depends on offense making plays and hitting shots. It was a physical game and you have to consistently play hard.”
Cave Spring’s lead mushroomed to 62-55 midway through the fourth on a pair of Reyer baskets from close range. Salem closed to 66-62 on two straight baskets by Vukovic, and still trailed 67-64 when Hicks hit both ends of a one-and-one with 1:15 left to put the Knights up 69-64.
Salem senior Shannon Davis got the Spartans to 69-66 on free throws before Knight junior Baker Haviland hit both ends of a one-and-one with 47.6 seconds left to restore the Cave Spring advantage to 71-66.
After a Hicks free throw, Davis drained a 3-pointer with 8 seconds left that got Salem to within 72-69. Hicks then made it a two possession game with one-of-two from the line before a Salem trey at the buzzer settled the final 1-point margin.
“Salem had everything going in during the first half,” Cave Spring head coach Jacob Gruse pointed out. “There was no rush, we just needed to play our game. Devin was our spark on defense with those plays he made. He’s just so fast and turned it into three straight scores.”
Reyer finished with 15 points for Cave Spring, with Beckner netting 9.
Senior Trevon Hill led Salem with 18 points. Vukovic finished with 15, while Davis banged home 13 points for the Spartans.
Bill Turner
