Fans at the Cave Spring gym Friday night were expecting a hotly contested basketball game between the Knights and the visiting Northside Vikings.
Everyone got their money’s worth.
Facing a 10-point deficit late in the third quarter, Cave Spring fought back to tie things at 62 with 2:28 left, and the Knights scraped out the final four points to pull off the hard-fought 66-62 win.
The win gave first-year Cave Spring head coach Jacob Gruse his first victory as a Knight, no short order against long-time Viking head mentor Billy Pope.
“Northside has a great coach,” Gruse said of his counterpart after the game. “Billy Pope has forgotten more basketball than I’ve ever known.”
But, down the stretch, Cave Spring made the big plays that counted most.
It looked like it might be the Vikings’ night midway through the fourth quarter. Nursing a 59-58 lead and facing a Cave Spring defense that was swarming, Northside junior Kendrick Tucker fired up an off-balance 3-pointer in front of the Viking bench that found the bottom of the net with 3:03 left. Although it pushed the Viking lead to 62-58, it would turn out to be the last Northside points of the evening.
Cave Spring began its final surge on the shoulders of 6-foot-3 junior Mason Reyer. After grabbing a loose ball, Reyer went coast-to-coast for a layup that cut the Viking lead to 62-60. Moments later, Reyer took advantage of a Viking turnover near mid court , scoring off the glass that tied things at 62 with 2:28 left.
“My mindset was to press it,” Reyer noted. “I was going straight to the hole both times.”
Cave Spring took the lead after another Viking 3-point attempt was off and Knight senior Zac Foutz being fouled on the rebound. Foutz sank both free throws with 1:20 to go for a 64-62 lead.
Things got scrappy in the final minute. Northside 6-4 junior Carlos Basham fouled out with 17.7 seconds left, sending Knight senior Chase Keister to the line for a 1-and-1. Keister came through on the front end for a 3-point Knight lead, and Cave Spring got the rebound when the second glanced off, sending Cager Hicks to the line after a foul.
“It was a lot of pressure,” Keister admitted afterward. “I’ve never been in that kind of position. On the first shot I was thinking ‘don’t mess up. ‘ “
Hick’s first free throw caromed off the heel, but it was Foutz to the rescue with a diving rebound and scramble that saw Gruse call for a timeout with 10.3 seconds remaining.
“He’s an animal,” Gruse said of Foutz’s play at the end. “He was determined to go under the floor to get that loose ball if he had to.”
“I was going to get that ball no matter what,” Foutz added. “At that point it was anything goes.”
After a Cave Spring turnover on the ensuing inbounds play, Northside had one final chance for a tying basket. But, a Viking shot lodged in the rim with 4.6 seconds left and although the Vikings had the possession arrow, Gruse drew up a 5-man defense from behind-the-arc that had Northside, out of timeouts, stymied. Brody Hicks added a free throw with 1.5 seconds left that settled the final margin.
“This was a good high school game,” Pope said outside the Viking locker room. “Cave Spring made good plays off the glass. In a game like this there’s a lot of possessions, so the 10-point lead we had was not a whole lot. We had good penetration, good passes and some good 3-point shooting tonight. We’ve had two straight tough games on the road.”
“This is brand new to these guys,” Pope added of his squad that has only one senior. “Cave Spring is an experienced team. Our guys haven’t gone through it before (a close finish). We’ll take steps to be good.”
Northside led 31-30 at the halftime break. On the night, the Vikings hit 7 shots from behind-the-arc, three coming from Tucker who had a team-high 22 points. Basham and George Bright followed with 8 points apiece for the Vikings.
On the Cave Spring side, Brody Hicks poured in a game-high 23 points to go along with 10 rebounds, 3 steals and all three Knight 3-pointers. Reyer added 18 points, with Foutz netting 11 and grabbing 12 rebounds.
Bill Turner
