Boys are fourth seed in Pioneer District tournament
NEW CASTLE – The Craig County boys earned a home game in the Pioneer District basketball tournament with the fourth seed in the tourney, which opened Tuesday.
Craig was scheduled to host fifth seeded Bath County in the opening round while Covington, the third seed, played host to sixth seeded Highland County. The top two seeds, Parry McCluer and James River, had first round byes.
Derek Persinger had 27 points in last week's win over Highland.
The tournament moves to Parry McCluer on Thursday, where the host team and James River join the action. Parry McCluer will play the Craig-Bath winner on Thursday at 6 pm, followed by James River against the Covington-Highland winner. The championship is Friday at 7:45 pm at Parry McCluer.
“I like our position,” said Craig coach C.J. Crowder. “We beat Bath at our place the last time we played them and we’ve been playing well lately.”
Craig comes into the tournament on a two-game winning streak. The Rockets beat Parkway Christian and Highland County last week to improve their overall record to 5-16 going into the tourney, and earning a home game in the process.
The win over Parkway was especially satisfying, as the Rockets had lost to Parkway the first time around in Vinton, trailing by 30 points at one point in that game.
“They hit 10 threes over there and this time we held them to three,” said Crowder. “We played ‘man’ the whole game and shut them down pretty good.”
Andy McCarty had 31 points and dominated the paint in the win. Derek Persinger had 14 points and Josh Looney had nine.
The Rockets still needed overtime to win. Parkway hit a shot at the buzzer to tie the game at 67-67, but Craig outscored them 7-4 in the extra period for the 74-71 victory.
A night later the Rockets won at Highland, 54-44. Persinger hit seven three-pointers and tied his career high with 27 points. McCarty had 10 points and 16 rebounds for the Rockets and Trevor Edwards had eight points.
“It was a good, hard-fought game,” said Crowder.
C.J. is hoping the back-to-back victories will give his Rockets some added thrust heading into the tournament.
“It should boost our confidence a lot,” he said. “We’re playing well going into the tournament and it always helps to win those close games.”
