No. 3 Luray travels to No. 2 Buckingham on Thursday for region semifinal
By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Feb. 25 — The Luray Bulldogs (18-7) will be traveling to No. 2 seed Buckingham County (16-5) on Thursday, Feb. 27 for a 7 p.m. tip-off in the Region 2B semifinals. The Knights knocked off seventh-seeded Strasburg, 62-57, on Tuesday night, while the No. 3 Bulldogs beat sixth-seeded Page County, 75-41, in the region quarterfinals.
“The message we sent to the guys was, we don’t have to beat them three times in a row now, we just have to beat them once,” LHS head coach Matt Huff said after defeating the Panthers a third-consecutive time over 12 days. “I thought the that last game that we played them, I thought that we had found something, a little bit of rhythm offensively, and tonight we came out and we were clicking on all cylinders and came away with a really good win.”
The Bulldogs shot 55 percent from the floor, 60 percent from the line, and hit nine three-pointers. Senior Blake Jenkins lead Luray with 18 points, including seven in the fourth quarter and a trio of three-pointers. Junior Matthew Owens posted 17 points and also hit from beyond the arc three times. Junior Connor Hilliard hit for 14 points, and senior Jae Frye added a dozen.
With four players in double figures and eight different Bulldogs contributing to the team win, Luray dominated their county rival on Tuesday night. The No. 3 seed held the visitors to only five points in the first 12 minutes of action, building up a 34-5 lead midway through the second quarter.
“We had been preparing for about two weeks now expecting somebody to kind of throw something at us to try to slow Blake and Matthew down, and they kinda did that a little bit. So we fed Jae Frye and he got going early. He got 12 big points for us and that was a huge difference for us,” Coach Huff said. “If he scores 12 and plays that good… the region is on notice.”
The Panthers got four of their five points in the first quarter from junior Isaac Foltz. Page would go scoreless for more than five minutes between the first two frames, until they produced nine points in the final 2:40 of the first half. Behind 11 first-half points from Owens, Luray lead 19-5 after the first eight minutes, and 43-16 at the half.
Page County would play Luray much closer the rest of the way, despite still losing ground in each of the final two quarters. The Panthers had their best run in the third quarter behind six points from junior Brandon Wright, but Page could only get as close as 47-28 with 4:45 left in the third. That 19-point deficit quickly grew to 32 just over four minutes later, as the Bulldogs closed out the third frame with four consecutive three-pointers and a buck at the buzzer by junior Riley Benson.
“Tonight was a complete team effort top to bottom,” Coach Huff said after the game.
Owens started the three-point rally in the third with back-to-back triples, and Jenkins opened the fourth quarter with seven consecutive points. The first team All-District duo combined for 35 points. Luray went into the fourth quarter up 65-33 with a running clock and closed out a 34-point victory, 75-41, to advance to the region semifinals on Thursday night.
Page County closes out the season at 13-10, after four straight losses. The Panthers were lead on Tuesday night by their own first team All-District duo, as junior Caden Combs scored 12 points and Foltz had 10. Wright finished the quarterfinal with eight points, and junior Dawson Richards had five. Overall the Panthers shot 30 percent from the floor, 75 percent from the line, and committed a dozen turnovers to Luray’s five.
Luray roles into “red clay country” on Thursday having won nine of their last 12 games. The Knights have won 10 of their last 12 and were tops in the James River District, going 11-0 among their peers and sitting at 16-5 overall. Buckingham’s first loss of the season occurred at Madison County, 51-37, on Dec. 16.
Coach Huff believes that Luray’s success on Thursday depends more on what the Bulldogs do, rather than their opponent.
“The key is us continuing to make shots,” he said, “sharing the ball, spreading it out, making shots, and then making sure that our defense continues to be as ferocious as it has been.”
For schedules, rosters and results, check the Bull Run District website.
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