J.J. Redick played on this hardwood during the 2002 Cave Spring state championship. Ditto for the back-to-back Knights’ state basketball championship teams in 2009 and 2010. Add to that five state volleyball squads serving, setting and killing on this court, and a pretty flashy cheerleading state title earlier this season.
With the Cave Spring High School remodeling set to start in the upcoming days it was only fitting the iconic Knight gym, with the 1967 Black Knight mural still hanging at one end, go out with a lot of fireworks.
Tuesday night, in the grand finale, it didn’t come in the form of pyrotechnics. But, there were plenty of long-range bombs as Cave Spring held off River Ridge foe Blacksburg 72-63.
Fans who like 3-pointers got their money’s worth, and then some, as the two teams combined for 17 hits from behind-the-arc. Cave Spring took the long-range title 10-7.
No surprise from that offensive strategy by Blacksburg head coach Doug Day, one of the top 3-point shooters in NCAA history while at Radford. Expecting the Bruins to shoot from long-range is like expecting a duck to waddle.
Cave Spring, which lost to Blacksburg twice in the regular season last year, including a stunning come-from-way-behind win by the Bruins on this court, was looking to revenge that loss and send their castle out on a high note.
The Knights came out of the gate strong, scoring the first 10 points of the game and leading 15-8 after the first quarter. Blacksburg clawed its way back in the second frame to take its only lead of the game at 20-19 before the Knights finished the half with a 7-2 spurt to head to the locker room up 26-22.
Blacksburg stayed close much of the third quarter before a pair of 3-pointers in the final seconds suddenly put the Bruins down by a dozen, 48-36, heading to the final 8 minutes. Holding for the final shot, Knight junior guard Adnan Jasarevic hit from long-range, one of his four from behind-the-arc that led to 18 points and a tie for game-high honors with Blacksburg’s Grant Johnston.
Moments after Jasarevic’s hit, the Bruins turned the ball over and Cave Spring sophomore guard Reed Pendleton followed by hitting from NBA range at the buzzer, one of his trio of bombs on the night including a rare 3-and-harm 4-point play in the early going. Pendleton finished with 14 points.
Blacksburg outscored the Knights 27-24 in the run-and-gun fourth, but the 12-point deficit was too much to overcome.
“Tonight, I thought it was a total ream effort,” Cave Spring head coach Jacob Gruse noted afterward. “We had some guys step up. We shot the ball extremely well and that’s due to our big players playing really well again tonight.”
Senior Crawford Enyart rounded out the double-digit scorers for Cave Spring with 13, while Johnston was complimented on the Blacksburg double-digit bracket by Cole Epperley, Matt Joyce and Drew Babcock, who netted 14, 13 and 12 points, respectfully.
Cave Spring improved to 13-4 (6-1 River Ridge) on the season. Blacksburg fell to 7-6 (2-4).
Cave Spring will finish out its sole regular season game at Cave Spring Middle School against Pulaski County on January 29th.
As far as the present Knight gym, if only these walls could talk.They would probably just say, “it’s been a heck of a run.”
Bill Turner