The Craig County girls were ready to compete in the Region 1C basketball tournament as the paper went to press this week. The Rockets were scheduled to play George Wythe in Wytheville on Tuesday night.
Eight teams made the Region 1C tournament. In addition to the Craig game on Tuesday Grayson County was at Parry McCluer, Auburn was at Narrows and Galax played host to Eastern Montgomery.
Tuesday winners will advance to the region semifinals at Pulaski County High School on Thursday. The Craig-Wythe winner will play the Grayson-Parry McCluer winner at 6 pm followed by the Auburn-Narrows winner against the Galax-East Mont winner at 7:45 pm. The championship game is Saturday at 1 pm at Pulaski and both finalists qualify for the Class 1 state tournament.
Craig went into the tournament with a 7-10 overall record. Last week in the Pioneer District tournament the girls opened with a 57-43 win over Bath County behind 27 points by Emily Smith. Daileigh Donithan and Kallie Fisher had nine points each and Natalie Fisher had 11 rebounds. Smith also had five steals, three blocks and three assists for the Rockets.
Craig advanced to the semifinals against Narrows and lost 87-32. Karsyn Reed of the Green Wave scored 37 points and former Rocket Kailyn Jones had 20 rebounds to go with a dozen points for Narrows. Smith led the Rockets with 12 points.
Craig played a consolation game at East Mont on Thursday and lost 52-42 as Smith had 13 points, nine rebounds and five steals while Donithan had 11 points. Kallie Fisher had five assists.
“We started out hot beating Bath, who knocked us out of the first round of districts last year, to advance into the semifinals of district,” said Craig coach Erica Crabtree. “The rest of the week did not go how we planned but I am proud of the girls for never giving up. We were down by 20 to East Mont in the fourth quarter and brought it back within five.
“This season has been a roller coaster of ups and downs from missing two weeks of the season to making it to Regions. It did not turn out how we planned but I am extremely proud of how far we have come from last year until now. It definitely has been a season I won’t forget.”