Blacksburg fades down stretch against Jackets
By LARRY HILLIARD Ledger Sports Editor larry@gaffneyledger.com

The Blacksburg Wildcats finally ran out of gas - and players.

The gritty Wildcats played Union even for most of the game but were outscored 24-9 in the fourth quarter to fall 77-53 on Friday.

Blacksburg jumped to a 12-10 lead at the end of the first quarter and trailed by only two at halftime.

It was still a tight contest in the third quarter when Union hit a three-pointer to go up by six - the largest lead of the game to that point.

The Yellow Jackets' 6-8 center, Devin Booker, took over in the fourth quarter, scoring eight of his game-high 29 points in the final eight minutes.

The Wildcats also were hampered with the loss of Rashad Earls and leading scorer Ken Littlejohn, who both fouled out in the fourth quarter. Earls scored 11 points and Littlejohn had 20 before being whistled for his fifth foul. Josh Elmore also fouled out for the Wildcats.

Despite the loss, Blacksburg coach Travis Miller was encoursports aged.

"This was the best game we've played all year," he said. "We gave a great effort."

The Wildcats were able to hang with the taller Yellow Jackets by applying ball pressure to the Union guards.

"They had a hard time passing it inside," Miller said.

Blacksburg also didn't help itself at the foul line, making just 11 of 27 free throws. Several of the misses were on the front end of a one-and-one.

"We could have been up by 10 points if we hit our foul shots in the first half," Miller said. "We missed three straight front end of one-on-ones that really hurt us. We had many opportunities to get a double-digit lead and didn't do it."

The Wildcats will travel to Landrum today and host Christ Church on Tuesday.

In girls' action, Union beat the Lady Wildcats, 66- 28.