Blue Devils, Rebels advance to Cumberland District final

CASTLEWOOD – Castlewood and Ervinton punched their tickets to the Cumberland District Tournament final with wins on Thursday night.

Castlewood (16-7, 12-0) used a strong scoring fourth quarter to end an upset bid by Rye Cove (11-12, 5-7). The Blue Devils scored 23 points in the fourth to advance to the Cumberland District Tournament championship game.

The Blue Devils will meet Ervinton (14-9, 9-3), who defeated Thomas Walker (9-14, 7-5) in the second game. The Rebels used tough defense early and free throw shooting late in the game to hold off a tough Thomas Walker squad.

BLUE DEVILS HOLD ON

Castlewood and Rye Cove started their contest off slow, with both teams only scoring ten combined points in the opening quarter. The Blue Devils led 7-3 after one quarter.

However, in the second quarter, things would pick up extremely fast. Both teams rushed up and down the court at an extremely fast pace. The two teams kept pace with one another despite the fast tempo of the game, as Castlewood held the 22-18 lead at the halftime break.

In the third quarter, the Lady Eagles would break open the game. Michelle Hutchins would score eight of her ten points in the third game. The Eagles scored 22 points in the quarter and they would go into the final quarter with the 40-37 lead.

The Blue Devils would answer that 22 with 23 of their own in the fourth quarter. Lorren Evans would score 11 of her game-high 24 points in the quarter.

A special moment also came for Evans, who eclipsed the 1,000 point mark for her career at Castlewood. Moments later, fellow teammate Kayla Gordon would also reach the 1,000 point plateau.

Motivated by the moment, Castlewood outscored the Lady Eagles, 14-5 in the waning moments of the game.

As both Evans and Gordon left the court towards the end of the game, they were embraced by their coach, Barry Ruff.

“That is something that doesn’t happen very often,” Ruff said. “I’m really proud of those two and the whole team in general. I couldn’t have scripted that any better. I am proud of their records.”

Rye Cove coach Jamie Carter was disappointed with the loss against Castlewood, but he was pleased with his team’s effort during the game.

“I think we did well for three quarters,” Carter said. “We gave up a lot of points there in the fourth quarter. That is twice where I feel like we’ve outplayed them for three quarters and then let it go in the fourth. The effort was good. I was happy with that.”

Now that the game between the two teams is over, both Carter and Ruff now look forward to their next match ups on Saturday.

“Those points make a difference in how we are seeded in the region,” Carter said. “I think the region is wide open. The overall play is close to equal. We look forward to that.”

“Hopefully we can go in and win this game and tournament on Saturday,” Ruff said. “We won last year’s tournament too. This should be really interesting.”

ERVINTON ADVANCES TO CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Ervinton started out their game against Thomas Walker extremely strong, as the Rebels connected on two early three-point shots. The Pioneers played close as the quarter closed with a 10-7 Ervinton lead.

However, that close game wouldn’t last long, as the Rebels burst out of the gate in quarter two. From the waning moments of the first quarter all the way into the beginning of the second, Ervinton would go on an 11-0 scoring run. The Rebels had a commanding 18-7 lead.

Jessica Burke would help get the Pioneers back in the game, as she scored on three straight possessions. Her efforts helped Thomas Walker crawl to within four points, 20-16. The half closed with the same deficit, as Ervinton lead 23-19.

In the second half, Thomas Walker overcame the offensive woes that had in the first half. Tiffany Gibson would start to get into a rhythm, as the post player scored seven of the team’s 13 third quarter points.

The effort wouldn’t be enough though, as Ervinton would keep pace in the second half and play tough physical defense. The Rebels locked up the game and a date against Castlewood for the District Tournament championship.

“We just never could get our offense rolling like we should have,” said Thomas Walker coach Janet Nelson. “We got Tiffany [Gibson] going in the second half, but she just couldn’t seem to get us out of the hole we were in. Our other shots weren’t falling either. We did a good job when we could play the zone on them,. Our help just wasn’t there.”

“I thought our ladies played really good defense tonight,” said Ervinton coach Rodney Compton. “We had to go to a zone there in the third quarter. Thomas Walker started to get some threes then. When we switched over to man, that gave us our defense back. That was a big key to our win tonight.”

Nelson talked after the game about the chance to rebound in their game against Rye Cove on Saturday.

“We beat Rye Cove by one and they’ve beat us by one,” Nelson said. “They are playing really well right now. We need to step up and play better than our last two games here. Typically, we play a good game against Rye Cove, but we have to play better than we did tonight.”

While those teams play in the consolation game, Compton really looks forward to his game against Castlewood and a possible Cumberland District Tournament title.

“We are really looking forward to it,” Compton said. “They beat us twice in the regular season, but both of those were close ball games. We were hoping we’d get another chance at them. Now we have that chance. Hopefully we will have a different outcome. We’ll do the best we can do.”


Castlewood 60, Rye Cove 51

RYE COVE (51)

Gibson 6, hood 11, Hutchins 10, Carter 6, Edwards 6, McDavid 12

CASTLEWOOD (60)

Evans 24, Counts 2, Addington 4, Gordon 24, Wohlford 5, Hall 1

Rye Cove 3 15 22 11 51
Castlewood 7 14 14 23 60

3-point goals – Rye Cove 2 (Edwards 2), Castlewood 3 (Gordon 3)



Ervinton 58, Thomas Walker 48

ERVINTON (58)

Spangler 2, Mullins 4, Bond 7, McCoy 7, Farmer 8, Rasnick 18, Hill 12

THOMAS WALKER (48)

Isaacs 6, Jes. Burke 15, Jen. Burke 5, Moles 4, Gibson 18

Ervinton 10 13 17 18 58
Thomas Walker 7 12 13 16 48

3-point goals – Ervinton 3 (Mullins 1, Bond 1, McCoy 1), Thomas Walker 3 (Isaacs 2, Moles 1)