The William Byrd boys saw their late season run come up one game short
of the state Class 3 basketball playoffs. The Terriers dropped a 59-51 decision to
Christiansburg in the Region 3D semifinal round at Northside High School
Friday.
The Terriers fell behind early. They held the Blue Demons to seven first
quarter points but only scored two themselves.
“We had a hard time getting anything going offensively,” said Byrd coach
Brad Greenway. “Guys competed and played hard start to finish…gave everything
they could give but I think the nerves got to us a little bit early, and then we really
didn’t handle some of the things Christiansburg did well enough down the stretch.
They switched screens a little more than they had shown us in the previous two
games, we have seen that several times this year and it wasn’t really a problem
like it was in this one.”
The Terriers hung tough and led 18-17 at the half. Christiansburg held a
one point lead, 35-34, after three quarters and the Demons outscored Byrd 24-17
in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.
“Big Garrett Overbay was just a huge factor on both ends,” said
Greenway. “They were able to play him in the paint on defense to really clog
things up, and at 6’8″ that gave us lots of trouble while we were trying to settle
our nerves and hit shots. On the other end they really force fed him in the paint
offensively to the point that we got in foul trouble early on trying to slow him
down…which created its own problems. At one point early in the third quarter we
had five guys with three fouls, and we felt fortunate that we were able to manage
it to that point.”
“Our defense was as good as it could be given the way they called that
game pretty tight with us being really undersized compared to what they put on
the court. We were right there with an opportunity to tie or take the lead late and
we didn’t get it done.”
David Foster had 18 points to lead the Terriers. Luke Helton scored 13 and
Moises Leon had eight.
With the loss Byrd finished the season at 9-16. They were 3-14 on
February 12 but won six of their last eight, making the region playoffs and
coming with a couple baskets of making the state tournament.
“What a rollercoaster sports can be,” said Greenway. “We had our ups and
downs on the court and off. We were 1-9 at one point, with some injuries, 7-8
guys at practice many of those early November and December days, and then
some other things that popped up internally. We had to push through all that, and
to our guys credit they really did that.
“We finally broke through with a big win over Glenvar in overtime, and
that LB win, then the Franklin County games gave us more and more confidence
and all of a sudden there at the end when we needed to win our way in to the
postseason, we found ourselves playing our best ball at the right time.”
Byrd will graduate four seniors who were all big contributors, Helton,
Jesus Leon, Jaden Holmes and Cason Nichols. Junior David Foster and
sophomore Moises Leon will be the top returning scorers and freshman Reid
Divers provided strong minutes off the bench.
“Luke came on and really played the best ball he’s played at Byrd in those
last few weeks, David kept scoring consistently, we got other contributions that
didn’t always show up in the stats from guys like Jaden Holmes, Moises Leon,
Jesus Leon, and I could keep going,” said Greenway. “Bottom line is our guys
stuck with it and they were rewarded in a big way. Really proud of what they
accomplished overall.
“Coming back next year we will be very, very young, probably playing
several guys who got little or zero varsity experience this season, but I think we
have a good core coming up and I like what those guys are about. I’m excited to
get back at it with them and see what they can accomplish a year from now.”
