SWOOPE — In a rough-and-tumble boys basketball game that could have been promoted by Don King, Nelson County put Buffalo Gap on the ropes early in the third quarter.
That’s when, backed by physical play, the defending Group A, Division 1, champions took its second lead of the game, this time off a Trey Barnett layup.
But the Bison weathered the blow and landed a haymaker of their own, riding a Josh McDevitt 3-pointer seconds later to a 12-4 run that knocked the Govs out of the Region B, Division 1, playoffs and sent Buffalo Gap to a 52-39 quarterfinal win and a date with Altavista on Friday in the semifinals.
“(We are) trying to be scrappy,” Bison center Boone Jones said. “We’re trying to get to March and that’s how you got to play.”
And play Jones did, notching yet another double-double with his 16 points and 13 rebounds.
But No. 8 Nelson County — resembling a triage unit at game time — did not go down without a fight.
Despite limited play from the injured Trevor Martin — Nelson’s leading scorer — and the flu bug having bitten Cameron Coles, the Governors were not an easy team to shake. After the Bison built a 13-4 first-quarter lead, Nelson began to claw back and cut the Gap lead to one when Drew Apperson rolled in a layup with just under a minute left in the half.
“We hung with them for three quarters,” Nelson coach Brandon Garrett said.
But after McDevitt’s 3, the Govs started to fade.
“I’m sure we got a little tired,” Garrett said. “Some guys were playing some minutes they weren’t used to.”
And as the Govs faded — scoring only six points in the third quarter — the Bison began a stampede with Jones leading the way.
The senior post player scored four points in the third but began drawing a double team from the Governors. That opened up looks for Calhoun, who scored six in the decisive third.
“We didn’t come out smart at halftime,” Bison coach James Carter said. “But they got settled down.”
Meanwhile, the Govs, who started the second half in contention, would hit only one more field goal after Barnett’s layup for the short-lived lead.
“I thought there was some rough play, I guess, to be polite,” Garrett said. “And I thought there were some very inconsistent calls, but that’s just making an excuse. We should have persevered through that.”
Garrett, who said plenty of his Governors spent the postgame crying in the locker room, said his team had nothing to be ashamed of.
“We fought,” he said, “to the end.”
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