Christiansburg sent a statement to their cross-county rival, Blacksburg, Tuesday night by winning both the boys and girls basketball games in the “Battle of the Burgs.”
The boys were a 78-53 winner, while the girls won 65-31.
Boys coach Mike Hunter felt his guys played as a team.
“We had some players step up and play like we knew they could. We set our focus on playing hard, and playing for each other,” he said.
The key for the Blue Demons was its second half performance, as it has had problems this season in the third and fourth quarters.
“We have not played good in the second half, so at halftime we discussed on maintaining a good third quarter and the fourth quarter would take care itself,” Hunter said.
This game helps the team with its confidence, according to the Christiansburg coach.
“We see that we can play together, and hopefully this will bring our team closer,” he said.
Austin Brown led the Blue Demons with 18 points. He also pulled down six rebounds and had three steals as the home team built a 13-point halftime lead and never looked back. D’Angelo Ruff added 17, while Grant Johnston led Blacksburg with 18 points.
Christiansburg is now 2-4 in River Ridge District play, while Blacksburg remains winless but is 3-10 overall. Christiansburg is now 4-10 on the season.
The story was much the same on the girls’ side of the court where the Blue Demons took an early 19-6 lead after one quarter. Blacksburg would be down 31-19 as the teams went to the locker room.
Christiansburg girls coach Joe Hutson said Blacksburg does a good job with their base defense so he wanted to try and push the tempo and play to his team’s strength in the transition game.
“We had a few defensive breakdowns in the second quarter, but otherwise our kids did a good job of pressuring the ball and contesting shots. We got a little out of character offensively in the third quarter and forced some things, but we played better team basketball in the fourth, got stingy on defense and were able to knock down some shots,” he said.
Grace Hutson, the daughter of the head coach, led Christiansburg with 19 points, while Julia Moschella added 16 in the win. No Lady Bruin scored in double figures.
Christiansburg is now 5-1 in district play and 9-4 overall. Blacksburg falls to 2-4 and 8-5.
Hutson said his kids have been working hard and making good progress. “We’re going to continue to focus on playing high energy, high intensity basketball. We’ve got plenty of work ahead of us, but we’re pleased with the investment the kids have made towards accomplishing their goals.”
Round 2 will be Wednesday, Feb. 7 in the final regular season game of the year.
