Homestanding William Monroe came out tonight breathing fire as Dragons are supposed to do, as they scorched, sizzled, singed, and smoked the net for an amazing SIX triples in the first quarter. Worst of all for Riverheads, it wasn't just one guy hitting them, the entire team seemed to be on fire. By the end of the period, they were ahead 23-9, which pretty much sealed the deal for the rest of the game.
However, as much as that first quarter was all about Monroe's offensive precision, the rest of the game deteriorated into an all-out slugfest, the kind of thing you would expect from two long-time rivals as opposed to two teams that had not seen each other for a couple of decades. Things got especially chippy in the second half as there were two major skirmishes and in each case, it was hard to tell exactly what had happened and what had been called.
Midway through the third, an intentional foul was called on Riverheads near the midcourt line but I personally did not see what led to it. However, what everyone in the building could not have possibly missed was a highly-emotional, supercharged reaction from a Monroe player who had to be physically restrained two or three different times. He was so upset by whatever happened that he never came back in the game.
Then in the fourth, a scrum under the Monroe basket led to a call that initially looked like it would be a double technical. That one took a longgg time to sort out, but in the final analysis, Riverheads shot foul shots and was awarded the ball afterwards, so it is anybody's guess what the call really was.
As a result of all that physicality, the scoring pace of the game slowed down considerably after that explosive first quarter. A possible factor for the lower scoring was that RHS coach Patrick Weller realized midway through the second half that he had a much more important game tomorrow night, the Big Red's fourth in five days I might add, and he decided to use his bench more than usual. Therefore some of his starters saw very little action after halftime.
That resulted in a balanced attack for Riverheads with no one in double figures, but four guys between six and eight points. The subs of course liked the extra PT very much and in fact two of them, Chris Brooks and Gabe Milo, drained three-pointers in the closing seconds for the final RHS points of the evening.
The real irony of all that mayhem that I just described was that the same officials worked both games tonight, a trend we have seen a lot more lately, and in the JV game, they called an excellent game, kept things very much under control, and you heard nary a peep out of any disgruntled fan or coach. That game by the way was won by Riverheads 53-37 in one of their better outings of the season.
After spotting Monroe the first basket of the game, the Gladiators hit them with a 12-2 spurt, highlighted by two Will Gardner triples, and the Big Red coasted from there. Three of Gardner's teammates joined him from behind the bonus sphere before the evening was over as RHS was clicking on all cylinders.
Monroe made a mini-rally to get back in the game when they trimmed the lead to 39-30 but at that point, RHS floor leader Henley Dunlap took over and hit for about 8-10 points in a row to erase any thoughts of a Dragon comeback victory. Last I saw on the cool scoreboard they use over there, he had 18 points for the game.
So hopefully the Gladiators survived this one without too many bumps and bruises and that they had a nice bus ride home and are already in bed as we speak. They will certainly need that rest for Tuesday night's biggie with Fort Defiance, after which they will FINALLY get some time off.
However, as much as that first quarter was all about Monroe's offensive precision, the rest of the game deteriorated into an all-out slugfest, the kind of thing you would expect from two long-time rivals as opposed to two teams that had not seen each other for a couple of decades. Things got especially chippy in the second half as there were two major skirmishes and in each case, it was hard to tell exactly what had happened and what had been called.
Midway through the third, an intentional foul was called on Riverheads near the midcourt line but I personally did not see what led to it. However, what everyone in the building could not have possibly missed was a highly-emotional, supercharged reaction from a Monroe player who had to be physically restrained two or three different times. He was so upset by whatever happened that he never came back in the game.
Then in the fourth, a scrum under the Monroe basket led to a call that initially looked like it would be a double technical. That one took a longgg time to sort out, but in the final analysis, Riverheads shot foul shots and was awarded the ball afterwards, so it is anybody's guess what the call really was.
As a result of all that physicality, the scoring pace of the game slowed down considerably after that explosive first quarter. A possible factor for the lower scoring was that RHS coach Patrick Weller realized midway through the second half that he had a much more important game tomorrow night, the Big Red's fourth in five days I might add, and he decided to use his bench more than usual. Therefore some of his starters saw very little action after halftime.
That resulted in a balanced attack for Riverheads with no one in double figures, but four guys between six and eight points. The subs of course liked the extra PT very much and in fact two of them, Chris Brooks and Gabe Milo, drained three-pointers in the closing seconds for the final RHS points of the evening.
The real irony of all that mayhem that I just described was that the same officials worked both games tonight, a trend we have seen a lot more lately, and in the JV game, they called an excellent game, kept things very much under control, and you heard nary a peep out of any disgruntled fan or coach. That game by the way was won by Riverheads 53-37 in one of their better outings of the season.
After spotting Monroe the first basket of the game, the Gladiators hit them with a 12-2 spurt, highlighted by two Will Gardner triples, and the Big Red coasted from there. Three of Gardner's teammates joined him from behind the bonus sphere before the evening was over as RHS was clicking on all cylinders.
Monroe made a mini-rally to get back in the game when they trimmed the lead to 39-30 but at that point, RHS floor leader Henley Dunlap took over and hit for about 8-10 points in a row to erase any thoughts of a Dragon comeback victory. Last I saw on the cool scoreboard they use over there, he had 18 points for the game.
So hopefully the Gladiators survived this one without too many bumps and bruises and that they had a nice bus ride home and are already in bed as we speak. They will certainly need that rest for Tuesday night's biggie with Fort Defiance, after which they will FINALLY get some time off.
