The Craig County boys saw their basketball season come to an end without a win last week as the Rockets fell to Eastern Montgomery in the first round of the Pioneer District tournament. Craig dropped a 61-30 decision in Elliston.
Craig hung tough. The margin was still single digits late in the first half before the Mustangs converted an offensive rebound and then forced a turnovers, giving them a 14 points lead at the half.
“We could never really get back into the game from there,” said coach Ryan Frazier.
The Rockets won’t get to play in the regional, which will be held this week. Parry McCluer, Narrows, East Mont and Highland County will represent the Pioneer this year, in that order.
Craig finished the season 0-22. The Rockets had some close games, losing to Faith Christian in overtime and playing Class 2 James River to a six point final twice. They had leads against Bath but couldn’t close the deal. And, they never gave up.
“This was a hard year for everyone, but the boys played hard and are good kids,” said Frazier. “We enjoyed our time together, but I know we all wish we would have gotten some better results. It would have been easy to give up early in the season without winning, but they fought till the end.
“We are losing four seniors in Jaycob Wolfe, Talon Ritter, Isaiah Wente and Cameron Huffman who have been part of the program for a while now, and I have really enjoyed working with and getting to know them over the last three or so years. Hopefully for next year we see the work we need to put in, and as a whole we work hard to improve in the off season. This will put us in a much better position to be successful.
“We have some underclassmen with talent, but we need to work to nurture that and improve because we know the other teams are working to get better.”
