Floyd County’s Buffaloes varsity basketball team took on defending champion Gate City’s Blue Devils Saturday night at the Chance Harman Classic and gave the visitors a scare, leading by as much as seven points in the first half until Zac Ervin started to score and ran up 35 points on his own to lead the team to a 65-58 win.

The Buffs fought hard, with Cayden and Tanyan Sutphin dropping 16 points each and Noah Bolt another 14 while the defense held the high scoring Devils to fewer points than the 80-plus points they’ve scored in five games so far this season.

“We were able to control [Ervin] in the first half and he was missing some shots, primarily due to some great defense from Noah Bolt,” said Buffaloes coach Brian Harman.  “We just made some mistakes at crucial times and didn’t hit enough shots.”

The Floyd-Gate City game was one of 12 matches in the two-day annual charity tournament that honors Harman’s son, who died of cancer in childhood.

More photos and details in the next edition of The Floyd Press.