Radford High is moving to Group 2A for basketball next year, and that’s not soon enough for the kids at Craig County High School. Bobcat teams beat both the Rocket boys and girls last week in first round Conference 45 action, ending Craig’s season on both counts.
The Craig boys came into the tournament as the eighth seed, and they went to Radford to play the top-seeded Bobcats. Devyn Nichols hit an early three to make the score 3-3, but after that it was all Radford as the
Bobcats eased to an 88-19 win. It was 56-12 at the half.
“We played a pretty good team,” said Craig coach John Looney. “They showed us how much we have to work to get better.”
Nichols finished with six points to lead the Rockets while Wyatt McPherson and Noah Nichols had four points each. Radford had 11 different players score as the Bobcats advanced, and eventually won the Conference 45 tournament with a 46-31 win over Covington on Friday night.
Craig finished the season at 1-16 as Looney concluded his second stint as Craig County boys’ coach. The Rockets just didn’t have the firepower to compete against a team like Radford.
“We missed some kids who didn’t stay in the program,” said Looney. “If we had the whole group that played on the jayvee team a few years ago we could have had a pretty decent team.”
The girls had a much better season, ending with a winning record at 10-8. Craig was the fourth seed in the Conference 45 tournament and had a first round home game against Radford, the fifth seed. The game was tied at 43-43 after three quarters, but the Bobcats finished strong and outscored the Rockets, 22-11, in the fourth quarter for a 65-54 win.
Kaylee Pauley led Craig with 15 points, followed by Tierrney Zysk with 14 and Savannah Looney with 10. Craig will return seven girls off the varsity next season including three of the four top scorers for the season in Zysk, Pauley and Taylor Sloss.
Radford was eliminated in the second round by top-seeded Parry McCluer, 45-25. The Blues went on to win the tournament, defeating Narrows in the final, 71-53.