Trail seeks first tourney berth since ‘97

By Steve Keenan Sports Editor

HICO — Seeking its first boys state tournament berth since 1997, Midland Trail lines up against Iaeger at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Hico in a Class A Region 3 co-final.

Veteran coach Greg Crist feels his team will be up to the challenge from the Cubs.

Of Iaeger, Crist says, “We’ve been watching film. I know they’re big and have got some size. We should match up OK with them. Like everybody else, they’re a little bigger than us. We’re accustomed to that.”

Crist says he’s been pretty pleased with his team’s play of late.

“When you get down to this time of year and you’re winning, you’re satisfied,” he said. “We beat Fayetteville and Pocahontas County, two pretty good teams.”

He’d like to see some more improvement, though.

“We still haven’t reached our potential, especially offensively,” he said. “Offensively, we haven’t hit our stride. That’s due to a lack of playing time basically.”

Iaeger coach Don Smith says his team needs to sharpen up its shooting skills. “Our last five regular-season games, I thought we were playing real well on the offensive end, and making a lot of shots. ... Last week we seemed to lose it again,” he told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. “We’ll hit a streak of four or five games where we can’t shoot. Hopefully, this time it’ll only be two games.”

Crist, who assisted both Steve Spicer and the late John Flournoy on the Trail bench in previous state tourney appearances, says he wouldn’t mind overseeing a team of his own on the big floor at the Charleston Civic Center Coliseum.

“I’ve never been fortunate enough to go as a head coach. It would be nice,” he admitted. “I’d be tickled.

“We’ll give it our best shot.”

Joey Fox (about 13.0 points per game), Caleb Carte (11.0) and Noah Sparks lead Midland Trail from the outside, and interior players Kelly Minter and Casey Deskins have provided a solid presence all season long.

Midland Trail, the No. 2 seed in Section 1, advanced with wins over Pocahontas County (62-61) and Fayetteville (43-39), while Iaeger (9-12), Section 2’s second seed, defeated Greater Beckley Christian and lost to Meadow Bridge. The Cubs are playing their final year before consolidation.

— E-mail:

skeenan@register-herald.com

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