After a contested layup to put his Tigers up 13 over Travelers Rest in the third quarter, Blue Ridge basketball junior Alton Every let out his loudest roar of the season.
It was met with an equally loud cheer from his teammates on the bench.
Every brings the energy every night with his effort on both sides of the ball. But this kind of energy? For one of the most mild-mannered players on the roster? This was a little different.
And it was welcomed with open arms by head coach Richie Stevens.
“I loved it. I love seeing that from him,” said Stevens. “But Alton, he’s always got great energy. That’s why he plays so much every game. He’s not the fastest, he’s not the biggest, but he can do things out of sheer will. And that comes from his high energy.”
“That’s sort of what we’ve been missing as a team in some games recently, that energy,” said Every. “We’ve taken some losses this year where we just came out flat and stayed that way. But this game, and the games we’ve won this year, we’ve had great energy. The guys on the floor and on the bench. When someone gets a bucket, everyone is loud and happy in cheering for them.”
Despite the game taking place at Travelers Rest, that level of energy could’ve passed off the contest as a Blue Ridge home game. The Tiger fans and bench were loud from tip-off to final buzzer as Blue Ridge rolled to a 63-53 win over the Devildogs.
Every finished with 12 points in the contest, all of them coming in the second half. After the first two quarters, in which the junior struggled to find his shot, he was the spark the Tigers needed to put the game out of reach late.
“I wasn’t hitting anything in the first half,” said Every. “Not many of us were. When that’s happening, you’ve just got to play good defense and wait it out until your shots start falling.”
“He was not shooting it well early,” said Stevens. “But he does all the other little things so well. I told him at halftime, ‘You just keep doing those things, and your shots are going to fall.’ And that’s what happened in the third.”
Blue Ridge center Ka’Mauri Campbell was huge in every area of the game, as well. The senior stuffed the stat sheet with 18 points on 64 percent shooting, 11 rebounds, five assists, four steals, and seven blocks.
“Ka’Mauri Campbell is a freaking monster,” said Stevens. “He was a human eraser tonight. He’s a legit big man who does all for our team. It’s going to be hard to replace that next season.”
With the win, Blue Ridge broke out of a five-way tie in 4-A Region 2. Coming into Friday night’s contest, the Tigers were tied at 2-4 in region play with Travelers Rest, Seneca, Berea, and Pickens.
Blue Ridge catapulted all the way to third in the region standings with the victory over Travelers Rest, now tied at 3-4 with just Seneca.
It’s all still to play for, even for a Blue Ridge team that tripped up early in region play while battling sickness. The Tigers are just now starting to find consistency.
“We’ve just got to not turn the ball over, not play selfish basketball, and keep that energy we played with tonight,” said Every. “Playing together as a team will help us get where we want to be.”
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