A tradition has been established in the boys basketball series between the Cave Spring Knights and the Abingdon Falcons.
Expect a close, competitive matchup.
Friday night in the Falcon gym Cave Spring dug itself out of an early hole, took an 11-point point lead with 1:12 left in the game, and held on as Abingdon got to within 2 points with 14.7 seconds left before pulling out the 72-66 win to capture the Conference 32 championship.
“I told Billy (Hicks, Cave Spring head coach) at the Holiday Hoopla in Salem, every time we play it’s a good game,” Abingdon head coach B..J. Lasley said afterward Friday night.
Abingdon won the Hoopla game in December by 3 points, defeated the Knights in last year’s regionals and lost to Cave Spring 61-59 on a buzzer beater in the 2012 regional final.
Friday night the Falcons came out of the gate on fire. Abingdon jumped out to a quick 14-4 lead on the shoulders of Falcon big-man Matthew Knight, who was hitting from all over the court. Cave Spring used a 7-point scoring surge by sophomore Brody Hicks to cut the Falcon lead to 16-13 after one quarter.
Cave Spring, with center Adam Sledd in early foul trouble, managed to stay close throughout the second quarter before going to the break down 31-28.
“We expected them to come out strong,” Billy Hicks said. “We were only 3 down and we weren’t getting the ball to the right people.”
The Knights got their first lead of the night at 40-39 when junior Zac Foutz converted an old-fashion 3-point play after a put-back and foul midway through the third. Cave Spring took a 51-50 advantage to the final 8 minutes after an Alex Emery 3-pointer with 30 seconds left in third.
Things picked up to open the final frame with 4 lead changes in the first minute. Cave Spring then went on a 9-0 run to go up 65-54. Abingdon missed several opportunities to slice the Knight advantage, and Emery’s free throw with 1:12 left pushed the Cave Spring lead to 66-55.
Riding the scoring of Falcon Josh Hess, who finished with a game-high 39 points, Abingdon closed with a furious rally to 68-66 on Hess’s 3-pointer with 14.7 seconds left, but Hicks closed things out with 4 free throws to secure the final margin.
“We wanted to get it to a one-possession game,” Lasley noted of the Falcon comeback.”There’s not a guard in the state I’d trade Josh Hess for. He kept us in the game, but give Cave Spring credit for making free throws.”
“We kept our composure at the end,” Hicks noted. “Zac was the best athlete on the floor and we wanted to get him the ball.”
Foutz finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds for the Knights. Brody Hicks added 24 points for Cave Spring including 10-of-11 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. Sledd chipped in 8 points for the Cave Spring cause.
In addition to the 39 by Hess, Knight followed with 17 points for the Falcons.
– Bill Turner
