By Cody Elliott / Daily News-Record
With just over three minutes remaining, Fluvanna County junior guard Bobby Gardner drove past Spotswood freshman Camryn Pacheco, who had been his primary defender most of the evening, and got a one-handed dunk that suddenly cut the Trailblazers’ lead to six.
In that moment, Camryn Pacheco’s head quickly went down. Initially, SHS senior guard Carmelo Pacheco began to offer some harsh, motivational words for his younger brother. But after just a few seconds, he quickly realized that what his younger brother needed, in that moment, was support.
“Melo’s leadership has improved,” Spotswood coach Chad Edwards said afterward. “He’s learned when to kick in the butt and when to pat on the back. Sometimes he treats his brother differently because it is his brother. On his own, he recognized that his brother needed encouragement.”
Following his brother’s advice, Camryn Pacheco responded with a big-time bucket down low and a pair of free throws with 1:53 remaining to extend the lead to 10. The top-seeded Trailblazers were never threatened again en route to an impressive 64-49 victory over seventh-seeded Fluvanna County in the Region 3C boys basketball championship on their home court late Saturday night.
“It means everything to me, as a freshman, to be able to contribute to my team,” the freshman Camryn Pacheco said after the game. “We just keep everyone’s chin up. This is just the beginning.”
The two teams were close throughout the contest with Spotswood using a 6-0 spurt, highlighted by buckets from both Pacheco brothers, to extend its lead to eight by half but the Flucos fought hard.
Fluvanna kept the game within single digits for much of the second half, before Carmelo Pacheco took over in the fourth. He finished with 10 points in the final frame alone to seal the victory.
“It means a lot,” Carmelo Pacheco said. “It’s probably one of my biggest accomplishments, considering this is one of the youngest and most inexperienced teams I’ve been part of. The biggest key has been everyone playing with confidence. We all know what we’re good at and what each one of us has to do to win. We are very locked in and determined to leave our legacy, especially seniors.”
The Trailblazers were impressive defensively for a majority of the night against a three-headed attack from Fluvanna of Gardner, Kobe Edmonds and Lance Bruce. Gardner is one of the best players Spotswood has seen this season and Edmonds is the Flucos’ all-time leading scorer.
“Collectively, their team quickness is impressive,” Edwards said. “That collection of guards is just really, really good. They’re a handful and they’re battle-tested because they play in a darn good district. We knew we’d have our hands full. We’ve been playing well and, tonight, I’d say we didn’t play as well. Early in the season, missed layups and defensive lapses would have caused us to break apart. Tonight, the kids were resilient throughout the game. I’m really proud of our resiliency.”
Carmelo Pacheco finished with a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds while Camryn Pacheco had a career-high of 20. Rayne Dean added 13 points and 15 rebounds in the big-time victory.
It was the Trailblazers’ 10th straight victory and the first regional title for the program since 2019.
“The biggest key to success with this team so far has been taking it one game at a time and not looking forward to the future,” Camryn Pacheco said. “This team is intent on accomplishing more.”
As a result of the victory, Spotswood (18-6) will host Northside in the Virginia High School League Class 3 quarterfinals next week at home. The Flucos will travel to Region 3D champion Cave Spring.
“When you get into state play, it’s not a road game 30 minutes down the road,” Edwards said. “With a really young group, long road trips have been a struggle this year. That’s not something we’ve proven to be good at. To stay home is huge for any team, but particularly my young team.”
The tough love between the Pacheco brothers provides a unique dynamic for the Spotswood team.
But as the Trailblazers are proving as one of the hottest teams in Class 3, it works just fine for them.
“I think our quality of play these last few weeks has coincided with Melo’s leadership,” Edwards said. “He’s shown it in practice, shown it off the court with encouragement and reminders to our young guys. More than anywhere else, he’s shown it on the court during games.”
