GATE CITY, Va. – A sign on the wall at Gate City Middle School reads “Nobody Does It Better.”
Not many would argue that point in Gate City.
The Blue Devils grabbed the Clinch Mountain District regular season championship with a 54-44 win over visiting Lebanon on Friday.
“This is great for the kids,” said Gate City coach Scott Vermillion, who has led them to the title the last seven years. “We’ve just had a really good run of kids come through. They are just hard working, blue collar type kids that are fun to coach.”
The Blue Devils were led by Jordan Potts, who poured in a game-high 20 points.
Lebanon struggled to get the ball in the basket. Gate City led 38-35 with 1:38 to play in the third quarter.
“Gate City played really hard,” Lebanon coach Thad Lambert said. “They came out and took it to us from the get go. We tried to battle back but we just had a rough night shooting the ball. We had some good looks but just couldn’t get them to fall. We just didn’t play our best tonight.”
Lebanon (13-4, 4-3) will play at Twin Springs tonight. Gate City (10-7, 6-0) plays at John Battle on Tuesday.
GIRLS
Gate City 37, Lebanon 23
Gate City never trailed as they continued their improved play with a win over Lebanon. The Blue Devils bounced back from a tough loss to Virginia High on Thursday night.
“I was a little worried about tonight because of how poorly we played last night,” said Gate City coach Kelly Houseright. “We did some good things tonight but our boxing out is still not what it needs to be. We were fortunate to get ahead and sustain the lead.”
Gate City definitely struggled at times, going over five minutes at the start of the second half without scoring. But an 11-point Blue Devil halftime lead only shrunk to nine points as Lebanon made a couple of free throws.
“We didn’t play all that great,” Houseright said. But we played well enough to win. We’ll take it.”
Lebanon finished with 19 turnovers. Kendall Helbert scored almost half of the Pioneers points, finishing with 11.
“I couldn’t fault our effort, we played hard,” Lebanon coach Rex Parker said. “If we keep playing hard and play a little better on offense, it will help our chances of winning.”
Autumn Richards scored a game-high 13 points for Gate City.
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