Lady Buffaloes close out regular home season games with win, but the boys’ lose to Alleghany

The district loss puts the Buffaloes 3-6 for the season and the Lady Buffaloes win has them at 5-5

By DOUG THOMPSON
Saturday, February 12, 2022
Musings

Kaiden Swortzel charges towards a score. He led scoring for the night and was honored by reaching 1,000 points.

Memo to the Alleghany High School Lady Highlanders: If you’re closing on the Lady Buffaloes in the closing moments of a tight game, do not — we repeat, do not — foul the Floyd player with the highest percentage of successful foul shots.

But they ignored that advice as Destiny Harman made most of her foul shots in the closing minutes and then seconds of a home match to give the Lady Buffs a 47-43 win on the night when the school also honored legendary coach Allen Cantrell by officially declaring the field of play for basketball “The Alan Cantrell Court.”

The Lady Buffaloes led the Alleghany ladies for the entire game with leads that ranged from 2 points to 10, but the margin fell to single digits in the closing seconds before foul shots helped secure the lead.

Harman led the Lady Buffaloes scoring with 25 points, followed by Kiley Hylton’s 8, plus 5 from Jaden Nichols. 3 apiece by Carly Thompson and Karlie Nichols, 2 from Leah Hamlin and one by MacKenzie Thompson.

Three-point goals by the Lady Buffs were 1 apiece by Thompson and both Nichols.

The win by the Lady Buffs was offset by a stinging loss by the boys’ varsity squad that fell 64-58, even with the game stopped briefly to honor junior Kaiden Swortzel’s 1,000th career point.

The Buffs trailed by just one point at the end of the third quarter but led 38-34 at the half, but the Highlanders took control in the third quarter, outscoring the Buffaloes 14-7 and 16-13 in the fourth.

Kaiden Swortzel led Floyd scoring with 29 points, followed by Ashton Agnew with 16, AJ Cantrell and Micah Underwood’s 4 apiece, Dylan Bond’s 3 and 2 by Gavin Herrington.

In 3-point goals, Agnew scored 4 while Cantrell and Bond had one apiece.

The game was the last regular-season match. The Buffaloes travel to Buchanan Monday to finish out the regular season against James River, and the Lady Buffaloes head south to Martinsville to end their regular season.

More details and photos on this game and two Senior Night matchups in next week’s Floyd Press.