Upon Further Review

He stood outside his team’s locker room and told us that there were a few guys in there crying. Sad, he said, at how their season and run had ended.

Looking at Nelson County coach Brandon Garrett, it appeared he shed a few a tears himself. His eyes red and filled with moisture. His face with red marks on either cheek. His expression one of “oh, well,“ disappointment and sadness.

It wasn’t a basketball game for 32 minutes Wednesday night at Buffalo Gap. It was a slug fest. A physical fight confined to the painted lines that signify where inbounds is and what is out of bounds. No, this isn’t some half-hearted attempt at hyperbole. It’s the truth and anybody who saw the game, anybody who watched two groups of high schoolers fighting for their postseason lives would surely say the same.

No exaggeration. Nothing of the sort. For 32 minutes the Bison and Governors exchanged haymakers, uppercuts and one-two jabs. Most of it figuratively. A few instances it was literally.

The Bison won. The Governors lost.

Buffalo Gap moves on to play Altavista and finds itself one win away from a Group A, Division 1 berth. Nelson County, who hoisted the same trophy over their collective heads last season, goes home.

And Garrett, taking the occasional peek into his team’s locker room through the thin glass window on the door, let it all hang out. It was physical, he said, “some rough play,“ he added, “I guess, to be polite.“

Some of us don’t have to be polite, which is why we’ll call that game a street fight in uniforms. And while Nelson County weathered all the blows it could before injuries, illness and the depleted roster that comes with those two things finally won out, Buffalo Gap is going to be stronger for it.

Though the infinite wisdom of the Virginia High School League, one-win Central-Lunenberg and equally unimpressive Manassas Park hopscotched the Governors in the Region B seedings. The defending champs found themselves as a No. 8 seed.

“They’re a great team,“ said Gap’s Boone Jones. “They’re a physical team. They deserved higher than an eighth seed, in my opinion.“

Jones shouldn’t be alone and he probably isn’t. But Jones and the rest of the Bison should now, after the win, be thankful that the Governors got dumped to No. 8. Why?

Oh, it’s simple really.

In the win-or-go-home atmosphere of the early rounds of regional play, the Governors were a physical trial that most No. 1 seeds would pay for. What better way, you can ask, for the favorite to get itself back into winning shape than having to go out in the first round and have to fight for win? While other top seeds cake walk, the Bison were too busy spitting teeth out of their mouths against Nelson to even worry about eating cake.

Afterward, it was nice, Jones said, to get the taste of winning back in their mouths after their loss to Riverheads in the Shenandoah District tournament.

But it was of little solace to Garrett who saw his team’s run as Group A, Division 1 champions come to an end.

“We battled to the end,“ he said.

Then he watched as his players left he locker room, turned the corner by the concession stand and walk through the doors.

And another thing: Lyndon Humphries dunks. Riverheads goes out and wins. Lock. The. Thread.

I’ve typed it once. I’ve typed it twice. I may have typed it 40 times, I don’t know. I don’t care. I’ve lost count.

But all I know is this: I. Love. Watching. Riverheads. Demetrius. Younger. Play. Basketball.

Lock that up too. Lock it up tight.