The Shadow
HOT SPRINGS – Bath County had a ton of success during their 2023-24 boys’ basketball season.
The Chargers finished 13-14 overall for the season but had a Pioneer District Tournament third place finish as the 5-seed, while also earning their first regional playoff berth since 2019.
In the very beginning of the regular season BCHS dropped their first three games and lost six out of their first nine games to fall to 3-6.
A 14-point non-district win over James River on December 21st started a four-game win streak for Bath County as the Chargers began to turn their season around as the team was above .500 basketball for the first time at 7-6.
During their four-game win streak, Bath County had four players averaging above 13 points per game.
Junior Issac Ingram led the team then with 15 points per game, including a game-high 19 in the win over the Knights which jump-started the win streak.
Senior Andrew Turner was averaging 13.8 points and had a team-high 17 a home win over Meadow Bridge which gave the Chargers a two-game win streak.
Junior Wyatt Campbell scored 13.5 points per game and had a huge contest in the teams fourth straight victory when BCHS defeated Riverheads 62-59. Campbell had a game-high 25 points on that night.
Meanwhile sophomore Luke Campbell had four solid games in which he averaged 13.3 points per game during that four-game win streak. Campbell scored 15 points in the team’s second and third win of that streak.
Then the season was met with a shift as Bath County would drop six of their final 10 regular season games to fall to 11-12.
Staring at the 5-seed for the Pioneer District tournament, the Chargers first-round contest would be played against 4-seeded Highland. The Rams had beaten BCHS in both of their regular season contests.
Bath County would arguably pick up their biggest win of the season as they pulled off the upset and knocked off HHS 59-53. In the last two minutes of the game of a tied 52-52 contest, the Chargers outscored the Rams 7-1 to reach the district semifinals.
In the district semifinals Parry McCluer would score a season-high 96 points in the 96-53 win over Bath County.
Despite the loss in the semifinals, BCHS had earned a Class 1, Region C playoff spot for the first time since 2019.
Before getting to regionals, Bath County had defeated Eastern Montgomery 63-57
and were backed by Campbell’s game-high 23 points, including five 3-pointers.
BCHS had some momentum for the regional postseason, however they ran into a powerhouse in George Wythe. The Maroons scored the game’s first 13 points and cruised to a 85-48 victory. Senior Greyson Walton scored a season-high 18 points, while fellow senior Frankie DeBoe had 12.
A. Turner led BCHS in scoring with 14 points per game. L Turner and Ingram each averaged 10.6 points per game. Ingram finished with one more game than L. Turner.
Campbell fell short of being the fourth Charger in double digits scoring per game. The junior guard finished with an average of 9.9.
While the end of the season ended the high school basketball careers of A. Turner, DeBoe, Walton, and Carter Hooker, the future is bright for head coach Zach Madison’s Chargers boys’ basketball team.
