Blue Ridge District members take notice. The William Byrd Terriers are ready for a run.
Tuesday night in the Cave Spring gym, the Terriers took no prisoners as William Byrd rolled to the 71-46 win over an outmanned Knight squad.
“This is a senior-orientated team and they played well tonight,” William Byrd head coach Kevin Turk noted afterward outside the Terrier locker room. “We played well and our defense impressed and created buckets.”
Cave Spring led 12-10 in the first quarter before the Terriers went on a 8-0 run to close the quarter and set the stage for a dominating second eight minutes.
The Terriers had success running the court, and Cave Spring had trouble getting inside as Byrd outscored the Knights 25-8 to take a commanding 43-20 lead into the halftime break..
“We didn’t compete well late in the first quarter the way I’d like,” Cave Spring 18-year head coach Billy Hicks noted in the Knight’s locker room. “It carried over into the second quarter and they started beating us to the ball and got hot from outside. They took us out of what we wanted to do. There was a time there when we didn’t make anything and didn’t get any loose balls.”
Byrd expanded their lead to 59-30 after three quarters, and coasted to the season-opening win.
“It’s good to see our defense look this good,” Turk added. “Their big kid (Adam Sledd) played well and we overcame that.”
Sledd led all scorers with 18 points. Byrd had balanced scoring with Marvey’o Otey getting 15 points, junior Evan Owens scoring 11, with Brad Williams and Zac Hill each picking up 10 points.
“Adam Sledd wasn’t even a starter on last year’s JV team.” Hicks added. “There’s tremendous potential there.”
– Bill Turner
