Buckingham County High School’s varsity boys basketball team showed it belonged with host No. 2 Gretna High School in the Region 2C quarterfinals last week, but the Hawks ultimately prevailed 54-49 to end the Knights’ 2018-19 season.

The No. 3 Knights reached the quarterfinals in strength after producing a dominant 64-31 home victory over No. 6 Chatham High School on Feb. 18.

They continued demonstrating this strength the next day, showing their competitiveness with Gretna from the start of the game.

“We came out well, got off to a good start,” Buckingham Head Coach Taylor Boyers said.

The Knights led 11-8 after the first quarter.

“(We) were tied going into the half,” Boyers said, as the score at the break was 18-18. “The beginning of the third quarter, they went on a big run, a 16-0 run.”

The coach said he called a couple of timeouts to help his team regroup. The Knights ended the quarter on a good 10-3 run “but just couldn’t quite get it close enough in the end,” Boyers said.

Buckingham trailed the Hawks 37-28 going into the fourth quarter.

“Overall, our guys battled with them,” the coach said. “We left it on the floor last night, and I was proud of that.”

The Knights finished the 2018-19 season with an overall record of 11-14.

Looking back on the season, Boyers considered how he would remember it, noting that he was “just happy for the way it went. We’re headed in the right direction — I’d say that for sure. We went from seven wins last year to 11 this year. Last year we were sixth in the district, this year we finished fourth and made the tournament and were able to get a three seed and host a regional game, so like I said, we’re headed in the right direction.”

The future looks bright for Buckingham, too.

“I was pleased with our effort all year, and for next season, I like what we’ve got coming back,” Boyers said. “We’ve got a good, solid core groups of guys who are returning. I think we’ll be improved next year as well.”

Key returners include forward Jalen Chambers and guard Amari Toney.