The Cougars were dead in the water at halftime tonight but came roaring out of the locker room to outscore RHS 16-4 in the third quarter and then held on through an absolutely wild fourth quarter to squeeze out the win. The Gladiators' home woes continue as they are now 0-4 in district play in front of the home crowd, but are an impressive 2-1 in Shenandoah District road games.
Fortunately the Gladiators have entertained their loyal fan base with three lopsided home wins, but those came against overmatched non-district opponents Bath County, Mountain View, and Liberty Bedford. As a result, RHS has an overall 7-8 record on the season.
The primary factors in tonight's loss were an inability to score inside against the taller Cougars with any consistency and a horrible night at the foul line. The Big Red made exactly one foul shot tonight and I had them unofficially as 1-8 in the second half.
Making matters worse for RHS fans was a double loss for the girls' teams over at the Draft, and in that case the Riverheads varsity was expected in most circles to win that one. Tonight's two losses for our varsity teams could have a negative effect on the respective teams' regional prospects.
Not only were these losses disappointing, but the entire Riverheads community was in mourning tonight over the news that our very first principal, Cecil Layman, who served the school for almost 30 years and remained a loyal fan into his 90s, has passed away in the last day or so. He was well-respected not only around Greenville, but throughout the state as he had served in many capacities and on many state-level VHSL committees. To honor his memory, Athletic Director Adam Mulcahy read a statement tonight prior to the varsity game and requested a moment of silence. "Cecil G" as many of us knew him will definitely be missed.
Back to the game........Riverheads could not have asked for a better start to the varsity game. Our leading scorer, sharpshooting sophomore Will Gardner, drained the first two of his four three-pointers midway through the first quarter and by halftime, his personal point total had him tied with the entire Cougar team, as RHS went to the locker room with a seemingly comfortable 25-13 lead. He would go on to lead the Big Red with a team-high 20 points.
But the Cougars only needed the third quarter to make up that entire deficit as they came out firing on all cylinders and turned up the defensive pressure. They tied the score at 27-27 and again at 29-29 to end the quarter.
However the Big Red then started out the final period on a positive note as Bennett Dunlap drained a three and immediately afterwards, sophomore J P Crawford tied up the Cougars in their own lane, which gave possession back to Riverheads. But they could not convert and the Draft soon tied it again at 32.
For the remainder of the game, both teams squandered numerous opportunities to score because of most likely frayed nerves, which led to a ton of missed shots and turnovers. For the first part of the final quarter, Riverheads looked as if they might hold on, especially when sophomore Henley Dunlap drove the lane and converted a lay up that would have put RHS ahead 39-36. Just when it looked like they might move ahead 40-36 and have some breathing room, we learned that the referee's whistle was for an offensive foul which incensed the entire home side of the gym not to mention Dunlap himself.
Shortly after that, his uncle Bennett converted that one and only RHS foul shot to make the score 38-36. Then with the clock ticking down to around a minute, Cougar sophomore Landon Graber drained a deep corner triple to give SD its first lead since it was 4-2.
Riverheads was still not done as senior Gabe Milo powered his way inside for a bucket that put the home team ahead 40-39 with only 15 seconds left. The Cougars then missed their first attempt to re-take the lead but a Donovan Jenkins stickback put them ahead 41-40. He was yet another of the many sophomores that stepped up to the plate tonight for these two teams.
RHS still had 4.4 seconds to work with, and even another try with 2.5, but threw passes away both times. A final Cougar foul shot iced the win between those two inbounds plays.
So most definitely this was a demoralizing loss for the Big Red but guess what????? They travel to Buffalo Gap Friday night and I am pretty sure I am correct on this.......after tonight's 32-29 win at Fort Defiance, which sounds like it must have been about as wild as this one, the Bison are now 3-0 in district road wins (the other two being at Riverheads and at Stuarts Draft) but they have lost all four of their district home games......to Staunton, Wilson, Fort Defiance and Waynesboro. So combining those home woes with Riverheads' above-mentioned 2-1 road record in the district........are you thinking what I'm thinking there folks??????? Tomorrow's nasty weather should be out of here by then so in about 72 hours from now, we will know how that one turns out.
Certainly I cannot leave you tonight without SOME good news for RHS fans and that is that our JV team raised its season mark to 10-4 with a 40-22 thumping of the Cougar Cubs. The Gladiators started out slowly as they trailed early by a 4-0 count but once they took a 6-5 lead after the first, they never trailed. 8th-grader Mekhi Meadows, who has been relatively quiet this year for the Big Red, had a nice game down the stretch, hitting some key hoops and foul shots to keep the Cougars from getting any ideas about a comeback.
