The Landrum Cardinals, fresh off a dominant 81-44 win over Chesnee on Tuesday night, took on the Blacksburg Wildcats, who were also 2-0 in region 1-2A, potentially with sole possession of first place on the line Friday night at “The Cage.”
This game had a lot of promise to be a barn burner, and for a while, it lived up to that billing. Both teams came out playing at a blistering pace, and scoring the ball with ease. It wasn’t until the final 2:00 of the first quarter that either team went on any significant scoring run. Blacksburg tends to thrive in the paint with the big bodies of Dre Buckson and Ratavious Degree and use that to occasionally open things up for Jacob Gilifillan to get open looks at the perimeter. They had success with that until Landrum began attacking in the post, forcing a couple of key turnovers. Those turnovers and the lights out shooting of the dynamic duo that is Bennett Edwards and Franklin Davis led to a pair of 7-2 runs, one to close out the first quarter and another to open the 2nd that really busted the game wide open for Landrum.
The Cardinals shot 57% in the first half, pulling out to a 47-28 lead. In the 2nd half, things did not get any better for the Wildcats. They mustered 27 points in the 2nd half, but Landrum continued to shoot well, even with their backups, who in the same fashion as Tuesday night, played the entirety of the 4th quarter.
In the end, the Cardinals moved into a tie for 1st place with a dominant 88-55 win., and it is really difficult to argue that they are not the hottest team in the area after back to back performances like this. Landrum was led by Bennett Edwards with 25 points. Franklin Davis was not far behind with 22. The Cardinal bench was led by Junior Small Forward Blayn Silver with 9 points on 3 of 6 from beyond the arch in the final stanza.
Blacksburg was led by Jacob Gilfillan with 20 points. Tracy Smith scored 7 while Ratavious Degree and Derekio McNeil tallied 6 apiece.
The red-hot Cardinals travel to Greenville Tech Charter on Tuesday night with a 7:45 tip. They will wrap up the week Friday at the undefeated in region Greer Middle College with tipoff set for 7:30.
Blacksburg will take on Greer Middle College Tuesday night at home with a 7:30 tipoff followed by a home game with Liberty Friday night at 7:30.
