Wildcats hammer Landrum

Photo by LARRY HILLIARD Tyler Otey and his Blacksburg teammates moved into a first-place tie with Landrum by beating the Cardinals on Tuesday night. The Blacksburg Wildcats put it all together as the Landrum Cardinals came apart on Tuesday.

Playing its best sustained defensive effort of the season, the Wildcats pulled into a first place tie with a convincing 71-42 victory over the Cardinals.

The Cardinals and Wildcats are 6-3.

The reigning region player of the year Rodney Poston was outstanding for the Wildcats, with 31 points.

“We all knew what we had to do coming into the game,” Poston said. “We knew we just couldn’t do it on offense. We had to step it up on defense.”

Center Josh Butler agreed.

“We had to play defense to win,” he said.

The Wildcats tweeked their trapping defense, forcing the confused Cardinals to dribble into double teams.

“It was our defense,” Blacksburg coach Travis Miller said. “I challenged the team before the game. I told them after the Jonesville loss that we were only 3-3 at home. They took that personal. We wanted to come out and play hard.”

The Wildcats got the message, jumping to a 12-2 lead on Tyler Otey’s stickback late in the first quarter.

Josh Butler, who scored 10 points, stretched the Wildcats’ lead to 26-13 with three minutes to go before halftime.

Sophomore Brandon Quarles, who led the Cardinals with just eight points, trimmed the deficit to 31-20 at the break on a baseline drive.

The Wildcats kept the momentum at the start of the third quarter when Poston drilled a threepointer and capped off a run with a three-point play to put his team ahead 38-22. Martell Fernanders had a free throw to put the Wildcats up 51-34 at the end of the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Poston brought the large crowd to its feet with a one-handed jam that increased the Wildcats’ cushion to 69-35.

Tim Boyd added 12 for the Wildcats, who improve to 6-3 in the conference heading into Thursday’s regular-season finale against Southside Christian.

“It’s a big game for us,” Poston said. “If we don’t win, we could be playing for third.”