John (left) and Will Gage are shown on Saturday at Harnett Central.

John Gage made a successful trip home as Avery County’s varsity boys basketball team took a 70-62 nonconference win at Harnett Central on Saturday.

Gage played for his dad, Will Gage, at Central from 2007 to 2009.

The older Gage said this is his 33rd year as coach of the Trojans and it will be his last as a teacher and coach at the school. He also serves as athletic director at Central.

The court at Central was named in his honor in November.

John Gage is in his first year as head coach of the 1-A Vikings.

“John had asked a long time if he got to be a head coach, if we would play his team,” said Will Gage. “When he got the head job, I told him it would have to be this year.”

Avery County (6-1) made the trip after a 54-52 home win over Ashe County on Friday night. Their venture was four hours each way. They arrived home around 11:30 p.m. after a postgame meal from Ron’s Barn provided by the Central booster club. They left Newland at 6 a.m.

“It was a full day,” John Gage said.

The Central boys had an early lead.

“We had a decent run, but they hung around and played tough,” said Will Gage, who is in his 35th year overall at Central. “They were disciplined down the stretch.”

Both coaches described the experience as surreal.

“I told one of our coaches I had never said on the bench on this side before,” said John Gage, who helped with several sports at his alma mater at the outset of his career. “I glanced over at him before tipoff. It was a goosebumps type of moment.”

Neither coach did a whole lot of what the other coach might have expected.

Will Gage has a reputation for deliberate tempo and zone defense. John Gage likes to extend defensive pressure.

“I guess we were both trying to catch each other off guard,” said John Gage.

Braydon Temple led the 3-A Trojans (6-3) with 20 points and Kyrese Williams added 17.

Avery County’s most famous basketball alumnus is 7-feet, 4-inch Tommy Burleson, center on N.C. State’s 1974 NCAA championship team.

“I came out of the hall into the gym one night and I was looking into a man’s (Burleson’s) chest,” John Gage said.

The matchup was the last of 2024 for the Trojans, who will resume play in the All American Conference at home against Terry Sanford on Friday, January 3, at 7:30 p.m.