Few things can bring a community together like high school athletics.

And few things can bring a state together — well, parts of it anyway — as college athletics.

College basketball, particularly.

And Richmond County had a chance to see both Thursday night when the ACC Barnstorming Tour came to town.

The tour brings graduating ACC seniors to seven North Carolina communities each spring. It allows basketball fans all over the state to see players from the “Big Four” schools: North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest and North Carolina State.

In its 32nd year, I think the tour is a neat idea. Tickets to games for the Big Four are hard to come by. So why not bring the game to the fans?

Area hoop aficionados seemed to agree, as a crowd of about 1,500 hearty fans packed into Raider Gymnasium

It was nice to see such a big crowd Thursday night.

What a thrill for the are high school seniors who got to take the court against some of the best players in the best conference in college basketball.

And though the ACC players carried the day in a game where the score truly didn’t matter — there were plenty of crowd-pleasing moments from the local boys: Dunks, 3-pointers, and cuts to the basket brought the crowd to its feet on a number of occasions.

It truly was fun to watch. And that’s the spirit of the event. Out of habit, I found myself drawing up my customary stat sheet — and then asking myself, “Why?”

I kept track of the score, again out of habit. But I was really trying to enjoy the game, as well. For this was truly an opportunity that doesn’t come along every day.

And of course, the Duke-Carolina thing was going to show up at some point, with both shades of blue represented in the house.

I haven’t been here long, I admit. But I’ve certainly listened to enough Carolina sports talk radio to see the dynamics of the love-hate relationship between Carolina and Duke fans and their opposite fan bases.

Carolina fans love to hate Duke, and vice versa.

And that’s all well and good. As a San Diego Charger fan, I’ve been conditioned to hate the Raiders. As a San Diego Padre fan, I’ve been conditioned to hate the Dodgers.

That said, it was a little bit disheartening to hear the mixture of boos and cheers for the two Duke players — Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek — as they were introduced at the game the other night.

Now, had this been an ACC game at the Dean Dome — Boo to your hearts’ content. But the Duke guys were here to have a bit of fun, and help raise a few bucks for the Ronald McDonald House and the Richmond athletic department.

Maybe the boos could have been put aside for now? Basketball season will be here again soon enough. And I have a feeling that the Tar Heels and the Blue Devils will be right back in their familiar battle for ACC supremacy again next year.

Contact sports editor David Vantress at 997-3111, ext. 14 or via email at dvantress@yourdailyjournal.com.