The William Byrd girls will play Staunton River in basketball for a fourth
time Friday night, but there won’t be a fifth time. This week the winner will
advance to the next round of region play and the loser will back up the uniforms.
Byrd will be in Moneta to play the Golden Eagles this Friday at 6 p.m. in
the first round of the Region 3D tournament. The girls split two games with the Eagles during the regular season, then lost to them in the first round of the Blue Ridge District tournament last Friday.
The three previous games were all quite different. Byrd lost to Staunton
River in Moneta by 22 points, 67-45, on January 13. Then, on February 2nd in
Vinton, they made a 35 point turnaround with a 13 point win, 42-29. Last Friday
in Vinton was the closest game of the three as visiting Staunton River took a 44-
40 win to open the BRD tournament.
“A hard fought game by both teams,” said Byrd coach Randy Bush. “We
made some mistakes that they capitalized on and that was the difference in the
game.”
Mia Martin led Byrd with 13 points and sister Sam Martin had nine.
Logan Andrews had seven points.
Staunton River comes into Friday’s game with a 10-14 overall record. The
winner advances to the next round of region play next Tuesday, February 20.