The William Byrd boys and girls basketball teams will be opening Region 3D play next week, with the boys’ playing on Monday and the girls’ starting Tuesday. Both tournaments are 10 team brackets with the top six teams getting a first round bye.
The boys are the eighth seed and they’ll host ninth seeded Carroll County on Monday. The other Monday game has 10th seeded Magna Vista playing at seventh seeded Christiansburg.
If the Byrd boys win Monday they’ll have their work cut out for them in Tuesday’s quarterfinal round, as top seeded Cave Spring awaits. The Knights are 23-1 after winning the River Ridge District tournament on Tuesday with a 60-34 rout of Blacksburg.
The region semifinals are a week from today at the sites of the top remaining seeds and the championship game is Saturday, February 26. Northside and Lord Botetourt of the Blue Ridge District are seeded second and third in the region, respectively.
The Byrd girls are the fifth seed in their Region 4D tournament so they don’t have to play Monday. First round games find ninth seed Christiansburg at eighth seed Abingdon and 10th seed Bassett at seventh seeded Northside.
Byrd will take on a familiar opponent next Tuesday, fourth seeded Lord Botetourt, in Daleville. The winner of that game will most likely travel to top seeded Carroll County a week from today for a semifinal game. Carroll County, a member of the mostly Class 2 Three Rivers District, is the top seed in the region with one loss while undefeated Staunton River, a Class 3 team from the Blue Ridge District, is the second seed.
Blue Ridge District tournament games were played this week but neither Byrd team qualified, as only the top four in the district were invited and both the Terrier boys and girls finished fifth. They both had a chance to make the field with games against Franklin County last Friday, but the Eagles swept both games.
In Vinton, the Terrier boys led for most of the way before the Eagles used a huge fourth quarter to pull out a 65-63 win. Byrd led by 18 points in the second quarter and the Terriers were still up by 12 points heading into the fourth quarter but let the game slip away.
“Not really sure how to explain the difference in the second half and the first half,” said Byrd coach Brad Greenway. “They didn’t do anything new in the second half, we just didn’t defend as well late in the game.”
Camden Richardson led the Terriers with 20 points but he fouled out in the fourth quarter and things went downhill from there.
“It seemed like after we lost Camden early in the fourth we were in a bit of a fog,” said Greenway. “We had five or six extremely good looks from three in the fourth quarter that just for whatever reason didn’t go down. If any of them fall we probably win the game. Just needed one or two.”
Trevor Ruble had 17 points for the Terriers and Ethan Hairston had eight as Byrd fell to 8-14 overall. Franklin County grabbed the fourth spot in the BRD tourney with the win and they also finished the regular season at 8-14. Northside and William Fleming were playing for the Blue Ridge tournament championship Wednesday.
In Rocky Mount Friday the Byrd girls also needed a win to edge out Franklin County for the fourth spot in the district tournament, but they also came up short, 41-25. Emilie McCaskill led the Terriers with 10 points and scored her 1,000th career point early in the game. Alexis Helton had nine.
“We did not play very well,” said Byrd coach Randy Bush. “The offense stalled and they made a run that we did not recover from. We’re looking forward to the preparation for the regions and seeing the team working together again.”
Byrd finished the regular season at 9-13 with the loss and they were still without their point guard and one of their top players, Sophia Chrisley. Meanwhile, Staunton River and Lord Botetourt were scheduled to play for the Blue Ridge championship Wednesday night in Moneta.
