BUCKINGHAM – The Buckingham County High School boys basketball team made its living at the foul line in the Knights' 56-39 non-district victory over Appomattox on Wednesday night at the BCHS Gymnasium.

The Knights were 27-45 at the stripe, which accounted for just under 50 percent of their points.

“It was a physical game,” said BCHS head coach Russ Gowin. “You expect that in a rivalry game, but it also shows that we were aggressive in the paint. Some of our shots didn't go down, but we had the right idea.”

Buckingham led 14-5 at the end of the first quarter and 25-15 at halftime, before out-scoring Appomattox 19-7 in the third quarter to take a 44-22 lead into the final break.

In the third quarter alone, BCHS made 11-18 foul shots, but much of that was due to an aggressive style by the Knights. Two made foul shots by Timothy Randolph put BCHS up 37-18 with 1:57 left in the period, and a three pointer by Leon Ragland at the 1:23 mark pushed the Knights' lead to 40-20.

Buckingham took its biggest lead at 47-22 with 5:43 remaining on a made free throw by Stephon Chambers. Shortly afterward, the Knights pulled their starters and primary rotation players.

Appomattox was able to cut the BC lead to 48-33 with 1:57 left, but a lay-up by Ragland and a three-point-play by Wade Lee pushed the Knights' advantage back to 53-33 with 1:17 left. Appomattox, which played the entire 32 minutes with its starting rotation, continued to press the BCHS reserves, but the Knights were able to stave off any real threat by the Raiders.

“I'm really glad we got to get everyone some quality minutes tonight,” said Gowin. “I thought our reserves played very well, and they got some experience they normally wouldn't get.”

The Knights were led in scoring by Ragland, who with 14 points, was the only BCHS player to score in double-figures. Cam Johnson scored nine points, pulled down eight rebounds and had four assists, while Dre Scott scored seven points and had nine rebounds.

Buckingham was scheduled to host Randolph-Henry on Friday night, before stepping out of the district to play Powhatan on Monday night. The Knights (4-0, 2-0 JRD) will wrap up its pre-Christmas portion of the schedule on Tuesday at Central of Lunenburg.