The Ashe County Huskies moved another step closer to the Mountain Valley Championship on Friday evening with a 59-42 victory over the North Wilkes Vikings to move to 9-1 in MVAC competition. The Huskies battled through a tough first three quarters, but held the Vikings to only 12 points in the second half, and five points in the fourth quarter to earn the victory.

Ashe pieced together a run late in the first quarter, after climbing to a small 12-9 lead in first five minutes of the game, to lead 21-13 at the end of the first quarter.

North Wilkes battled back in the second quarter, and held the Huskies to only seven points during the eight-minute period. Ashe scored first with a three pointer, but then the Vikings outscored the Huskies 17-4 to climb back into the game, and the score stood at 30-28 at halftime.

After the halftime intermission, the two teams continued their close contest with the game going back, and forth for the first three minutes of the third quarter. Ashe tied the game up at 37-37 off of a three pointer by Daniel Waln. This was the first tie between the teams since the score was tied at 26-26 with two minutes left in the first half. Ashe then gained momentum and ended the quarter on a 6-0 run, to claim a 43-37 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Ashe stretched a six-point lead into a 17-point final victory. Tommy Spagnolo scored the first points of the quarter with an alley-oop dunk from Daniel Waln on the opening possession for Ashe, which just gave the Huskies early momentum in the quarter.

Ashe rode the momentum to a 52-37 lead, and to the 4:10 mark, at which point the Vikings scored their first points of the quarter. It was to little to late for the Vikings, as Ashe then moved on to the 59-42 victory.

Leading the game in scoring was Storm Clonch from North Wilkes with 19 points in the contest. Leading the way for Ashe was Spagnolo with a double-double in the contest. Spagnolo led the Huskies in scoring with an impressive 18 points and hauled in a game high 10 rebounds during the contest. This was Spagnolo’s first game back from illness after missing the contest with North Surry and West Wilkes.

Following Spagnolo was three other Huskies who scored in double digits, Tatum Lemly with 11 points, and Waln and Greyson Wells with 10 points each. Tucker Clay and Dustin Hamm each scored five points to round out the scoring for Ashe.

The victory for Ashe moved them to 9-1 in the MVAC, and 18-3 on the season, while North Wilkes dropped to 5-5 in MVAC, and 10-8 on the season.

The Huskies have two games remaining in conference play, with the first one coming tonight when they travel to Forbush to face the Falcons, and then wrap the season up on Thursday against Wilkes Central at home, which is the Huskies’ senior night festivities.

The contest with Forbush on paper is an easy win for Ashe, with Forbush having a rough 3-7 MVAC record. However, Forbush can be a tough opponent, with one of their three victories coming at Wilkes Central. The same team that has handed the Huskies their only loss in the MVAC thus far in the season, which the two teams will square off on Thursday in Ashe County for the final game of the regular season for both teams.

The scenario boils down to this, if Ashe wins both of their remaining games, they are the MVAC Champions. Or if Wilkes Central loses to Starmount tonight, then Ashe would simply have to beat Forbush or Wilkes Central to win the Championship. But if Ashe and Wilkes Central both win tonight, then the winner of Thursday night’s game will be the MVAC Champions.

The action resumes for Ashe at Forbush this evening, with tip-off approximately at 8 p.m., and then the regular season concludes on Thursday evening at home again st Wilkes Central with same tip-off time.