On Tuesday, the Blue Ridge Barons faced the St. Anne's-Belfield Saints in a battle between two of the state's top teams. Blue Ridge took a 76-70 hit to the loss column at the hands of St. Anne's-Belfield. Blue Ridge has not had much luck with St. Anne's-Belfield recently, as the team's come up short the last three times they've met.
Blue Ridge lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Kamren Martin, who scored 19 points along with five rebounds. Markus Robinson was another key contributor, scoring 15 points.
Chance Mallory continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines for St. Anne's-Belfield, dropping a double-double on 28 points and 11 rebounds. Mallory also posted two blocks for the first time this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Austin Williford, who scored 11 points along with seven rebounds.
Blue Ridge's loss ended a six-game streak of away wins and brought them to 14-6. As for St. Anne's-Belfield, their win was their 18th straight at home, which pushed their record up to 15-3.
Blue Ridge will take on Highland at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Highland knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with flashy point totals in its past 12 matches -- so hopefully Blue Ridge likes a good challenge. As for St. Anne's-Belfield, they will head out on the road to face off against Trinity Episcopal at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Trinity Episcopal will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Virginia Rankings (they are ranked 53rd, while St. Anne's-Belfield is ranked first).
