The Shadow
Despite trailing at halftime, 29-24, the James River Knights (17-3) varsity boys basketball team, rallied in the second half for a 61-54 victory over the Alleghany Mountaineers (14-7) Saturday evening.
The Knights were led by, Patrick Clevenger, who scored a game-high 24 points. Clevenger, scored 20 points in the second half.
Meanwhile, Jayson Easton, a former Alleghany High School student and member of the Mountaineers basketball team, scored 22 points against his previous team.
The Mountaineers, were led by Baron Leitch, who scored a team-high 23 points. Halen Lowman, had a quality performance with nine points and grabbing down nine rebounds.
The win over the Mountaineers, is the Knights second victory on them this season.
After the first quarter, the Knights led 14-9. The Mountaineers, followed a rough first quarter by outscoring the Knights 20-10 in the second quarter to go into the second half with a a 29-24 lead. Kole Caldwell, in the closing seconds of the first half, knocked down a corner three-pointer that put his team up five points. It was Caldwell’s only basket of the game.
With momentum heading towards their side following the end of the first half, the Mountaineers in the third quarter, did not look like a team who was playing with momentum, as the Knights came out firing in the second half and on their way to a 25-point quarter to take a 49-38 lead.
In the final quarter, the Mountaineers were able to bring the deficit down to single digits, but never got back within a one possession game.
Even in a win, the Knights were out-shot from behind the three-point arc. The Mountaineers knocked down 11 three-pointers, five from Baron Leitch. The Knights knocked down seven.
The Mountaineers close out their regular season this evening, as the team hosts the Glenvar Highlanders at 7:00 p.m. These two schools will likely meet in the first round of the Class 2 Region C tournament on Friday. The winner of tonight’s game would be the host of the game for Friday.
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Ttl
JRHS 14 10 25 12 61
AHS 9 20 9 16 54
Knights scorers: J. Easton 22, Clevenger 24, Bailey 3, Steger 6, Andrews 6
Mountaineers scorers: Lowman 9, Leitch 23, Moore 8, Webb 6, Hayslett 3, Harden 2, Caldwell 3
