BUENA VISTA – A high pressure defense and an efficient offense fueled the Galax Maroon Tide past the Bath County Chargers, 61-36, in the semifinals of the Region C boys basketball tournament at Parry McCluer High School.
The Maroon Tide (22-2) advance to tonight’s Region C championship game to take on Eastern Montgomery (19-3), a 50-36 winner over Parry McCluer in the nightcap.
“Galax is a very good basketball team,” said Bath County Coach Dave Herscher following his team’s loss. “Their pressure hurt us early on. We got trapped and would make some bad passes and that led to some easy buckets for them. I think the pressure was that much more intense giving the magnitude of the game.”
Galax’s Justin Hash, who had to borrow a pair of shoes from a Parry McCluer player after leaving his back in Galax, led the Maroon Tide with a game-high 18 points, including four treys. Deion George added 12 points in the win.
Senior Colby Bosserman was the lone Charger to reach double figures with 17 points. Aaron Newmarker added six, Dillon Fry and Walker Ryder scored four each, Ryan Plecker had three and Zach Woodzell rounded out the Bath County scoring with two points.
Bosserman opened the game with the first of his three treys to give the Chargers their only lead of the night, 3-0, but Galax responded with a 14-0 run over the next four minutes to take a commanding 14-3 lead.
Bosserman added a stick-back and then dished to Newmarker for an easy two to pull the Chargers to within seven, but Hash knocked down his second three-pointer of the quarter to give Galax a 17-7 lead. Galax led 17-9 after the first quarter.
The Maroon Tide opened the second quarter with a 9-2 run that was capped by Hash’s dish to Austin Pack with four minutes to play in the first half that gave Galax a 26-11 lead.
Bosserman drained his second three-ball of the game to make the score 26-14, but the Maroon Tide scored the next seven points as they took a 33-17 lead at the break.
Ryan Plecker’s corner trey coupled with Bosserman’s stick-back closed the Chargers’ deficit to 11 (35-24) with 5:20 to play in the third quarter, but the Maroon Tide closed the quarter on a 15-4 run to take a 50-28 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
Ryder’s steal and lay-up with 5:55 remaining made the score 52-30 and Woodzell stroked a pair at the line with 2:06 to play to make the score 56-34, but it was the Maroon Tide who secured the Group A berth and a spot in tonight’s championship game with the 61-36 victory.
“We made some adjustments at halftime and were able to cut their lead to 11, but then we got back on our heels and they eventually just wore us down,” said Herscher. “Galax is probably one of the more athletic teams that we have faced all year and they are tall. They blocked a lot of our shots tonight and I think that was also a big stat in the game.
“They are a well-coached team and they are experienced when it comes to this level because they’ve been here the last three years,” added Herscher.
The loss was the final high school basketball game in the careers of Bosserman, Fry, Ryder and Christian Riley.
“This was just a tremendous group of young men. They’ve handled more adversity than any other team that I can think of. I watched them not only grow as a team, but also into young men,” added Herscher.
Bath County rounded out its season with a 14-9 record.