The William Byrd High School basketball teams will play a doubleheader
with Staunton River in Moneta this Saturday. The girls will open the twin bill at 4
pm, followed by the boys’ game at approximately 6:30 pm.
Both teams were weathered out of Tuesday games with Franklin County,
the girls at home and the boys in Rocky Mount. With inclement weather predicted
Franklin County closed school and the games will be rescheduled.
The Byrd boys were scheduled to play a non-district game at Cave Spring
on Wednesday night, but results were too late for publication. The Terriers
opened their Blue Ridge District schedule last week by splitting two games,
losing at William Fleming but bouncing back with a big win over Lord Botetourt
in Vinton Friday.
At Fleming the Terriers dropped a 77-59 decision. Byrd fell behind 44-29
at the half and the Colonels were never threatened after intermission.
“We didn’t defend well enough,” said Byrd coach Brad Greenway. “We
competed the whole way through, played hard, but we didn’t defend well enough.
Too tough to win when you give up that many points.”
Hayden Eads and Isaiah Board led the Terriers with 17 points each while
Ty Blalock had 13. Jaron Walker had 25 for Fleming, including 17 in the first
half.
On Friday the Byrdmen played host to Lord Botetourt and broke open a
close game with a huge fourth quarter for an 81-60 district win. Byrd led just 49-
48 after three quarters but outscored the Cavaliers 32-12 in the fourth period to
win going away.
“Great game to watch and be a part of, lead changes, energy, celebrating
the football team’s region championship,” said Greenway. “We played a clean
game offensively.”
Board led the fourth quarter charge with 15 of his game-high 29 points in
that period. Isaiah was four-for-four from three point range and five-for-five at the free throw line. Blalock had 10 points in the fourth quarter and 16 for the game while Eads finished with 14 points and eight rebounds. Byrd shot 65 percent from the floor and 50 percent on three point attempts, outrebounded LB 37-29 and had
21 assists to 12 for the Cavs.
“Wish every night was that fun,” said Greenway.
With the win the Terriers improved to 8-3 overall.
The girls also played Fleming and LB last week and dropped both games
against the top two teams in the district. Coming into the week both Fleming and
LB were 10-2 overall and Tuesday night the Cavaliers won 52-46 at Fleming to
remain unbeaten in the district at 3-0.
Last Wednesday in Vinton the Fleming girls took an 80-20 win over Byrd,
and on Friday the Terriers had an even tougher time in Daleville, falling to LB 61-
10.
“These last two games were a product of going against two of the top
teams in the area and also us not having a game for two weeks,” said Byrd coach
Randy Bush. “We did have good practices during the time not playing games,
but I feel we went into both of these games hesitantly and that led to the wheels
falling off. We are excited to get going again and continue with the season.”
The Byrd girls are scheduled to host Craig County tonight. The Rockets
Class 1 Rockets are 4-4 and have one of the top freshmen in the area in Kailyn
Jones, who is averaging over 20 points and 10 rebounds for the season.
Next Tuesday, January 16, the Byrd girls will host Northside while the
boys have a game at Northside. The Vikings currently lead the Blue Ridge
District boys’ standings and are 10-2 overall.
