Boys Region 1B Semis: Riverheads 57 Carver 48 - FINAL
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BOYS BASKETBALL, 1B semis: Riverheads 57, Carver Academy 48.
Gladiators advance to Saturday's regional championship game and clinch berth in Class 1 state tournament.
Riverheads ended game on a 15-3 run.
It sounded like a game of runs in the 2nd half.
Gladiators advance to Saturday's regional championship game and clinch berth in Class 1 state tournament.
Riverheads ended game on a 15-3 run.
It sounded like a game of runs in the 2nd half.
This was an absolute donnybrook of a game, exactly what you would hope a regional semi-final would be. Nice crowd of Gladiator fans and although Carver did not bring that many, their cheerleaders kept a groove going and their fans very much enjoyed that 17-0 scoring spurt as well they should have.
As usual, Riverheads was led in scoring by their dynamic sophomore duo of Braeson Fulton and Grant Painter. They combined by my count for 41 of the Big Red's 57 points, but for my money, the key play that turned the game around came from junior guard Drew Bond. But I will keep you in suspenders and lead up to that gradually.....
You could tell that nerves were impacting both teams in the first quarter. RHS tried to hit some threes, normally a strong suit, but they were not falling. Carver on the other hand was trying to establish an inside presence, but several shots came up short. The quarter ended in a 12-12 tie.
F and P put their quickness to good use in the second quarter as they gave Riverheads a boost toward a halftime lead. Painter first scored six quick ones and Fulton followed up with 4 of his own. They would go on to score 17 of the Gladiators' 19, with a Johnny-on-the-spot Josh Kinzel stickback being the only other points of the quarter. The lead reached 8 at 27-19 before Carver closed to within 31-26 at the break.
You know what they say about the first few minutes of the third quarter being crucial and for a while it looked as if that would indeed be the case. Fulton and Bond scored the first two buckets of the half, Bond then added a three, as Carver took almost four minutes to get started. The Gladiators eased out in front 42-28 and it looked like a rout was on.
Coach Simon must have said the magic words on the Carver bench, because suddenly they came to life and for what seemed like a dozen Gladiator possessions in a row, nothing went right for the home team. The Wolverines (first time we ever played any of those!!!) were using their height advantage and long arms to contest each and every pass and if they weren't stealing them outright, they were at least deflecting them.
By the end of the quarter, they had it down to 42-37 and then added eight more in a row, including a corner three to move in front 45-42. At that point, I am not sure too many people in the gym were giving Riverheads much of a chance to stop the bleeding, but Painter finally did with a pair of free throws.
On the next Gladiator possession, with the score still 45-44, Bond worked his way inside the lane and it appeared that the entire Wolverine team, two or three of the cheerleaders, and maybe even the water boy all collapsed on him at one time. Someway somehow he worked his way out of that jam and scored, drawing a foul in the process. His free throw gave RHS the lead for good at 47-45. Following a Carver miss, Fulton then drove the length of the floor for an old-fashioned of his own to give the Big Red some much-needed breathing room at 50-45.
The 'verines still hit one more triple to make it interesting at 50-48 but RHS was able to slow the pace down and salt the win away at the foul line. Bond finished with 9 points to complement the dynamic duo, but the Gladiators' other two starters, Elijah Dunlap and Bradley Roberts, were handcuffed by early foul trouble and combined for only three points between them, far below their usual average. Forrest Shuey accounted for the remaining two Big Red points.
The Carver roster was incomplete and some numbers were wrong so I cannot give credit where it is due for their effort, but they appeared to be a well-balanced group that gave a very good account of themselves and were not intimidated by the atmosphere.
With the win, RHS moves to the regional final, which we are now being told will be at 7:00 Saturday at Cumberland, as opposed to the previously-announced 6:00. Both teams will advance to state play beyond that, but the winner of that one should get to host a state quarter-final, whereas the loser will have to travel to a Region A site.
As usual, Riverheads was led in scoring by their dynamic sophomore duo of Braeson Fulton and Grant Painter. They combined by my count for 41 of the Big Red's 57 points, but for my money, the key play that turned the game around came from junior guard Drew Bond. But I will keep you in suspenders and lead up to that gradually.....
You could tell that nerves were impacting both teams in the first quarter. RHS tried to hit some threes, normally a strong suit, but they were not falling. Carver on the other hand was trying to establish an inside presence, but several shots came up short. The quarter ended in a 12-12 tie.
F and P put their quickness to good use in the second quarter as they gave Riverheads a boost toward a halftime lead. Painter first scored six quick ones and Fulton followed up with 4 of his own. They would go on to score 17 of the Gladiators' 19, with a Johnny-on-the-spot Josh Kinzel stickback being the only other points of the quarter. The lead reached 8 at 27-19 before Carver closed to within 31-26 at the break.
You know what they say about the first few minutes of the third quarter being crucial and for a while it looked as if that would indeed be the case. Fulton and Bond scored the first two buckets of the half, Bond then added a three, as Carver took almost four minutes to get started. The Gladiators eased out in front 42-28 and it looked like a rout was on.
Coach Simon must have said the magic words on the Carver bench, because suddenly they came to life and for what seemed like a dozen Gladiator possessions in a row, nothing went right for the home team. The Wolverines (first time we ever played any of those!!!) were using their height advantage and long arms to contest each and every pass and if they weren't stealing them outright, they were at least deflecting them.
By the end of the quarter, they had it down to 42-37 and then added eight more in a row, including a corner three to move in front 45-42. At that point, I am not sure too many people in the gym were giving Riverheads much of a chance to stop the bleeding, but Painter finally did with a pair of free throws.
On the next Gladiator possession, with the score still 45-44, Bond worked his way inside the lane and it appeared that the entire Wolverine team, two or three of the cheerleaders, and maybe even the water boy all collapsed on him at one time. Someway somehow he worked his way out of that jam and scored, drawing a foul in the process. His free throw gave RHS the lead for good at 47-45. Following a Carver miss, Fulton then drove the length of the floor for an old-fashioned of his own to give the Big Red some much-needed breathing room at 50-45.
The 'verines still hit one more triple to make it interesting at 50-48 but RHS was able to slow the pace down and salt the win away at the foul line. Bond finished with 9 points to complement the dynamic duo, but the Gladiators' other two starters, Elijah Dunlap and Bradley Roberts, were handcuffed by early foul trouble and combined for only three points between them, far below their usual average. Forrest Shuey accounted for the remaining two Big Red points.
The Carver roster was incomplete and some numbers were wrong so I cannot give credit where it is due for their effort, but they appeared to be a well-balanced group that gave a very good account of themselves and were not intimidated by the atmosphere.
With the win, RHS moves to the regional final, which we are now being told will be at 7:00 Saturday at Cumberland, as opposed to the previously-announced 6:00. Both teams will advance to state play beyond that, but the winner of that one should get to host a state quarter-final, whereas the loser will have to travel to a Region A site.
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Longtimer....I always enjoy your postings. Congrats on The Gladiators earning a State Bid! As a fan was this one of the wildest rides you've been on as a fan? This team always had the potential to be very good but...they were up and down and seemed at midseason they were in trouble. They fought back and now are heading to the State. I know one thing when they have their perimeter game working with their driving to the basket...tough team to beat. Do you know much about Cumberland?
In all honesty it helped that Region B in 1A is down. Altavista wasn't very good this year and other than the two finalists, nobody else in that region was any good. With that said, I like Riverheads' chances against Cumberland. Coach Coffey does a great job on the sideline and will have his group ready to play. I have seen Northumberland play and whichever of the two gets them faces an uphill battle in the quarters and I have to imagine that Lancaster is as good as always so the "B" rep will have their hands full in that one as well.
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Thanks guys for the good thoughts. I personally have mixed feelings about Riverheads' chances both Saturday night and moving into next week.
On the positive side, we have indeed played some very good competition. We took Lee down to the final possession on their own floor in late December in what was possibly our best overall game of the season. Of course the re-match in Greenville was another story but Lee needed some time to adjust to their coaching change.
We also posted some victories over Group 2 and even Group 3 teams, beating both Rockbridge and Fort Defiance once each. At times I have wondered if we are a better road team than we are at home, as evidenced by the Lee game and wins that we had at Stonewall, Luray and Page.
We are very young, with only one senior and very small, with only one starter standing more than 6 feet. But we rebound well for our size and we do have some decent, albeit streaky shooters. We hit 12 threes in one game twice this season to set a new school record and one of our guys set an individual record one of those nights with eight of them.
So it will probably come down the rest of the way to match-up issues on any given night. I tend to compare scores, which I know you cannot always rely on, but we beat Lunenburg by 25 on Tuesday, only to learn that they had beaten Cumberland once this year. But then Cumberland has rolled easily in both regional games so far.
As for Region A comparisons, who knows????? We played at Mathews last year and it did not go well, but here we are a year later and a year older, so whoever we draw and wherever we play, we will try to make the most of it.
On the positive side, we have indeed played some very good competition. We took Lee down to the final possession on their own floor in late December in what was possibly our best overall game of the season. Of course the re-match in Greenville was another story but Lee needed some time to adjust to their coaching change.
We also posted some victories over Group 2 and even Group 3 teams, beating both Rockbridge and Fort Defiance once each. At times I have wondered if we are a better road team than we are at home, as evidenced by the Lee game and wins that we had at Stonewall, Luray and Page.
We are very young, with only one senior and very small, with only one starter standing more than 6 feet. But we rebound well for our size and we do have some decent, albeit streaky shooters. We hit 12 threes in one game twice this season to set a new school record and one of our guys set an individual record one of those nights with eight of them.
So it will probably come down the rest of the way to match-up issues on any given night. I tend to compare scores, which I know you cannot always rely on, but we beat Lunenburg by 25 on Tuesday, only to learn that they had beaten Cumberland once this year. But then Cumberland has rolled easily in both regional games so far.
As for Region A comparisons, who knows????? We played at Mathews last year and it did not go well, but here we are a year later and a year older, so whoever we draw and wherever we play, we will try to make the most of it.
Well as of the moment we have a 1 in 8 chance! Also if am not mistaken, Parry McCluer is out of the picture in Region C and we cannot beat that bunch to save our souls. So that might make our chances a tiny bit better!!!!
lol
I am fairly confident that no one (at least from the Neck) will be complaining about the number of the student population at Riverheads. It most likely won't matter how many they got ha.
As I posted when they made this alignment change a couple times over a year ago, Riverheads will make it to states in almost every sport -
Region B reminds me of the Articles of Confederation - Weak.
I hope you are right, but our (Riverheads) AD has told me that if we win Saturday night, we host the region A runner-up and if we lose, we travel to the Region A champion. So I took that to mean that the games would be played on the home court of the host teams. But maybe it only really means in the general area of that team. For example, back in 2004, when we played that all-time classic state quarter-final against W & L, it was played at King William.
Go to the 3A board and view the thread about region tournaments. Lynn Burke has a post (with info that was supplied to me) stating that the VHSL has said that quarters and semis will be played at neutral sites near the "host" school
Here's the message I got from C'ville on Jan. 31:
state QF’s will be held at a local area site for each Region champion on Fri/Sat March 2/3. State SF’s will be held Mon./Tues. March 5/6 at the higher seed site, if both are region champions, the top team in the bracket will be the home team.
state QF’s will be held at a local area site for each Region champion on Fri/Sat March 2/3. State SF’s will be held Mon./Tues. March 5/6 at the higher seed site, if both are region champions, the top team in the bracket will be the home team.
But if two regional champs win their quarters, what criteria is used to determine which one gets to host the semi-final game? If they are both regional champs, they would seem to be on equal footing. Will they perhaps use regular season point totals to determine that?
Does all of this mean that they are using supersites after all this year? Nothing much had been said about them, and I cannot find them listed anywhere, so I assumed they were out of the picture. For example, and I realize this is cart before horse, if Riverheads were to win tonight at Cumberland, does that mean that they might host the quarter-final game at JMU, which once upon a time was our designated supersite? In fact, our girls team has played there before.
Let me speak on this: Each region has been instructed to designate potential venues for the quarters and I also believe the semifinals. For instance, if Northumberland wins its boys game tonight I would venture to guess it would host its state quarterfinal at Lancaster. If Lancaster wins, I would venture to guess its state quarterfinal would be at Washington & Lee.
According to the bracketing, if the semifinal involves the Region B and Region A champions the game will be contested at a location designated by Region B.
This probably explains it better than what I have:
According to the bracketing, if the semifinal involves the Region B and Region A champions the game will be contested at a location designated by Region B.
This probably explains it better than what I have:
I appreciate your attempts to clarify. But the real issue is the way the VHSL changes it year after year. If there were some consistency, we would all understand it better. Now that I understand at least somewhat, I will make it a point to tackle (yes I know...wrong sport!) our AD tonight if we win and ask him what our designated site will be.
Just what been posted by Nndman don’t see where it has to be neutral site just approved by Vhsl or am I missing something
NNDman always knows his stuff but I agree with the Riverheads posters in that the location of the State Qs and Semis appear very confusing. It seems to me that they are open to interpretation by the local regions (winners).
Heck, I thought that the State semis (Final Four) were also played at VCU. I am pretty sure I have been to some semis games there.
"VHSL State Championships
Quarterfinals March 2 & 3 at higher seed sites
Semifinals March 5 & 6 at higher seed sites
Finals March 8 through 10 at VCU Siegel Center"
That is what I see on the VHSL site. Looks to me like games can be played at Region A and Region B Champs home courts.
However, again, it seems to be open to interpretation (just like the US Constitution). Sorry to use another governmental analogy ha.
Quarterfinals March 2 & 3 at higher seed sites
Semifinals March 5 & 6 at higher seed sites
Finals March 8 through 10 at VCU Siegel Center"
That is what I see on the VHSL site. Looks to me like games can be played at Region A and Region B Champs home courts.
However, again, it seems to be open to interpretation (just like the US Constitution). Sorry to use another governmental analogy ha.
This is straight from Mike McCall of the VHSL at 11:58 this morning: "all QFs, Region A, B, C, D, will be played at a region site, but not the home gym."
I'm now over and out on this topic. And the only edits I made to this was to put quotation marks around what he wrote.
I'm now over and out on this topic. And the only edits I made to this was to put quotation marks around what he wrote.
As always the NNDman is correct (of course, ha)
It looks like whoever wins the Region A title will play at another NND school (probably W&L, thanks to W&L for hosting!) and the Region B winner will have to find another location as well.
Not sure If I agree with this move or not for the Qs - I mean isn't playing at home in the 1st round one of the big motivators for winning the Region and earning the higher seed? - being close is great but still not home. The other team has to travel just as far....
It is what it is....
It looks like whoever wins the Region A title will play at another NND school (probably W&L, thanks to W&L for hosting!) and the Region B winner will have to find another location as well.
Not sure If I agree with this move or not for the Qs - I mean isn't playing at home in the 1st round one of the big motivators for winning the Region and earning the higher seed? - being close is great but still not home. The other team has to travel just as far....
It is what it is....
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