By Eric Lusk
Sports Editor

BOONVILLE -- Starmount High is getting ready to play a lot of basketball games — and make a lot of road trips — over the next few weeks.

Thanks to last month's snowstorm, which cancelled a handful of contests, the Rams will play six opponents in nine days, beginning with tonight's (Wednesday's) make-up game at Alleghany. All but one of those contests will be away from Boonville.

Starmount will travel to Ashe County on Friday, then will play in East Surry back-to-back non-conference meetings -- in Pilot Mountain on Saturday and at home Monday. Next week's slate also features games at Elkin (on Tuesday, Jan. 26) and at Wilkes Central (Friday, Jan. 29).

That's a lot of hoops in a short amount of time, with all but the East Surry dates factoring into the varsity teams' standing in the Mountain Valley 1A/2A Conference.

"It's going to be a tough two weeks," varsity boys coach Jeffrey Hague said. "The schedule isn't favorable, but we've got to play them. If we can get through it, we'll be in good shape."

The Starmount boys enter tonight's game at Alleghany with a 4-4 MVAC mark, winning their two most recent games comfortably against East Wilkes and West Wilkes.

The Rams sit in sixth place in the league standings but they are only a couple of games behind leaders like Ashe County (one loss) and Wilkes Central (two losses). The next few weeks should start the separate the pack.

Starmount's girls improved to 5-3 in conference with a 54-35 win over West Wilkes on Friday. The Lady Rams play two of the three teams ahead of them in the conference standings -- Ashe County (9-0) and Alleghany (5-1) -- this week and could gain ground in a hurry with a pair of victories.

"This is a big week for us in the MVAC," girls coach Kyle Hutchens said.

Kelli Bonner scored 19 points and Olivia Gough added 12 points in last Friday's win over West Wilkes. Heaven Walters provided eight points.

Starmount teams will begin the February slate with yet another road trip, traveling this time across the county to Forbush. The regular season closes with home games against Alleghany and East Wilkes and one final road trip to North Wilkes.

Starmount 54, West Wilkes 35

Friday • at Boonville

WEST WILKES -- Shepherd 13, Wingler 2, Cantrell 10, Bumgarner 6, Sims 2, Caldwell 2.

STARMOUNT -- Kelli Bonner 19, Maygan Baldwin 2, Heaven Walters 8, Rebecca Aplin 3, Olivia Gough 12, Ashton Gregory 5, Kristen Blackburn 2, Courtney Barnes 1.