Boys BB: (1A) Riverheads 70 (2A) Page County 65 - FINAL
- Thread starter pizzzzza
- Start date
Yes, the Gladiators successfully spoiled Page's Senior Night tonight, but they had to overcome a whole boatload of adversity to get the job done. In chronological order, here are the issues the Big Red faced in this game:
Dressing out only eight players due to one starter being out with the flu, and some sources say that yet another one was not at 100%.
Dealing with an odd scoreboard glitch that seemed to have no reasonable explanation for happening.
Fighting off an incredibly spirited rally by the Panthers in which they roared back from an 18 point deficit and actually took a one-point lead.
Surviving their own misses at the foul line down the stretch that made the game closer than it might otherwise have been.
For the third game in a row, Elijah Dunlap scored in the opening few seconds of the game to get the Big Red started. This time it was a triple, the first of 9 that the Gladiators would hit on the evening. Drew Bond added a two moments later to give the Gladiators an early 5-0 advantage. Page was getting shots in the first stanza but they had at least two of those that seemed to be halfway down the cylinder but still popped back out. The first ended with RHS on top 15-10.
In order to keep his eight troopers as fresh as possible, Coach Coffey subbed early and often in this one, and junior Josh Kinzel came off the bench early in the second, and immediately dropped in a three from the left corner. Seconds later he scored on a fast break to give RHS its biggest lead to that point at 24-15. As it turned out, he would not score any further, but if you look at the score and do the math, you will see that his contribution was quite valuable.
Later in the quarter we had our scoreboard scandal. Riverheads was leading 30-24 when sophomore Zack Adams hit from in close and was fouled. That made the score 32-24, and then he converted the free throw to make it 33-24. One team or the other called a timeout and the teams headed to the benches. Suddenly we all looked up to see 31-24 on the scoreboard.
No idea why or whose mistake, but two points were just "taken off" the board, even though you had a scoreboard operator and two official scorekeepers on the job. I of course checked my own totals and had 33, so I for one knew something was not right. Eventually the two points were re-instated and the game continued. RHS then took a 36-28 advantage in to the locker room.
I must be one of them there psychics you hear about, because at halftime, I told my seatmates that we were in pretty good shape if we had an eight-point lead and Grant Painter had yet to hit from behind the arc. As you guys may remember, he is the one who hit eight treys in one game this season on the way to a 37-point career high, and more recently hit five of them in a 28 point game.
Well he must have heard me because he came out fired up in the third quarter and drained two of them within seconds of one another, and suddenly the Big Red was up 44-28. They continued to pour it on, taking their biggest lead of the game at 48-30. At the end of the third, you still had the feeling that the lead was safe at 57-44.
But the Panthers were determined not to go down quietly, and they staged a humongous rally, fueled by some great defensive play and some unconscious shooting of their own from behind the arc. Finally, at the 1:49 mark of the fourth quarter, they took their first lead of the game at 63-62 on an old-fashioned three by one of their six departing seniors, William Hart.
At that point, a betting man would have assumed that the Panthers had so much momentum that they were not only about to WIN this one, but that they might have the Gladiators so rattled that they might even win it fairly easily. But even though this was "Senior Night" for the "home" team, it was a visiting sophomore who stepped up to the plate and snatched the win back for Riverheads.
Braeson Fulton, who had 17 points up to that point, stroked a three from the top of the key, after a brilliant assist from Bond, to put the Gladiators up by two. Page tied it one last time at 65, but the Gladiators were able to withstand the Panthers' furious pressure and even though a lay-up or a foul shot opportunity might have been the coach's preference, Fulton instead decided "what the heck" and cleanly stroked his third trey of the game for the dagger that put the Gladiators up 68-65.
After a Panther miss, they were forced to foul and Dunlap made us a little nervous by missing his first of two. But he canned the second one to make it a four point game with only 19 seconds left. Fulton was fouled one last time with only three ticks left and we didn't mind by that time that he only made one of two.
Had he made both, he might have unofficially had a new career high. By scoring seven of RHS' final eight points tonight, he finished with 24, which is not only his career high (again unofficially) but he may have hit it as many as three or four times between this year and last.
Painter finished with 15, Dunlap had 12, Bond finished with 7, and Kinzel and Adams each had 5 very important points, considering the final margin. Even our wide-body Deacon Moore surprised us with a nice baseline jumper that wasn't too far short of a triple to round out the scoring.
With the win, RHS finished at 8-8 in district play, good enough for fifth place. It has already been announced by the Gladiator AD that they will play at Wilson Friday night in a double-header, with the eighth-seeded Lady Gladiators taking the floor first against regular-season champ Wilson, with the boys then taking on the fourth-seeded Hornets.
Both games have the potential to be interesting because the RHS ladies came alive late in the season whereas Wilson might not be as fired up, having clinched the title tonight. As for the boys, Riverheads shocked everyone a couple of weeks ago with a 71-39 romp over the Hornets, but that was of course in Greenville and this one will be at The Hive. Tip off for the ladies will be 6:00.
The JV game tonight more or less followed the same pattern as the varsity, as Riverheads took a big early lead, only to see the Panthers rally back in the second half. This time however, the home team did complete its comeback. Trailing 22-15 at the half, the Panthers first came back to tie it at 24. Riverheads then re-assumed command and appeared to be on the way to victory after all with a 31-24 lead, but PCHS rallied again. They then took their first lead of the game at 42-40 with exactly 3:00 left.
The lead see-sawed back and forth with Page winning 49-47 when an Adam Painter corner triple rimmed out for RHS. Ironically the winning basket for Page, depending on how you look at it, occurred in the second quarter. In a bizarre play you had to see to believe, time was running down and about 5 or 6 guys were frantically volleyballing out around the Page foul line.
Suddenly the ball rocketed toward the basket from the right elbow and somehow found the net just at the horn. I would not want to be the one assigned to officially score it and it is quite possible that a Riverheads player knocked it in during the mad scramble. Considering the final score, you do the math and figure out how important that basket turned out to be.
All in all it was a wild night in Shenandoah and fans got their money's worth. For those of you who followed the much more serious crisis mentioned earlier in the day, I finally decided on the diner, but sadly they were out of peanut butter pie.
Dressing out only eight players due to one starter being out with the flu, and some sources say that yet another one was not at 100%.
Dealing with an odd scoreboard glitch that seemed to have no reasonable explanation for happening.
Fighting off an incredibly spirited rally by the Panthers in which they roared back from an 18 point deficit and actually took a one-point lead.
Surviving their own misses at the foul line down the stretch that made the game closer than it might otherwise have been.
For the third game in a row, Elijah Dunlap scored in the opening few seconds of the game to get the Big Red started. This time it was a triple, the first of 9 that the Gladiators would hit on the evening. Drew Bond added a two moments later to give the Gladiators an early 5-0 advantage. Page was getting shots in the first stanza but they had at least two of those that seemed to be halfway down the cylinder but still popped back out. The first ended with RHS on top 15-10.
In order to keep his eight troopers as fresh as possible, Coach Coffey subbed early and often in this one, and junior Josh Kinzel came off the bench early in the second, and immediately dropped in a three from the left corner. Seconds later he scored on a fast break to give RHS its biggest lead to that point at 24-15. As it turned out, he would not score any further, but if you look at the score and do the math, you will see that his contribution was quite valuable.
Later in the quarter we had our scoreboard scandal. Riverheads was leading 30-24 when sophomore Zack Adams hit from in close and was fouled. That made the score 32-24, and then he converted the free throw to make it 33-24. One team or the other called a timeout and the teams headed to the benches. Suddenly we all looked up to see 31-24 on the scoreboard.
No idea why or whose mistake, but two points were just "taken off" the board, even though you had a scoreboard operator and two official scorekeepers on the job. I of course checked my own totals and had 33, so I for one knew something was not right. Eventually the two points were re-instated and the game continued. RHS then took a 36-28 advantage in to the locker room.
I must be one of them there psychics you hear about, because at halftime, I told my seatmates that we were in pretty good shape if we had an eight-point lead and Grant Painter had yet to hit from behind the arc. As you guys may remember, he is the one who hit eight treys in one game this season on the way to a 37-point career high, and more recently hit five of them in a 28 point game.
Well he must have heard me because he came out fired up in the third quarter and drained two of them within seconds of one another, and suddenly the Big Red was up 44-28. They continued to pour it on, taking their biggest lead of the game at 48-30. At the end of the third, you still had the feeling that the lead was safe at 57-44.
But the Panthers were determined not to go down quietly, and they staged a humongous rally, fueled by some great defensive play and some unconscious shooting of their own from behind the arc. Finally, at the 1:49 mark of the fourth quarter, they took their first lead of the game at 63-62 on an old-fashioned three by one of their six departing seniors, William Hart.
At that point, a betting man would have assumed that the Panthers had so much momentum that they were not only about to WIN this one, but that they might have the Gladiators so rattled that they might even win it fairly easily. But even though this was "Senior Night" for the "home" team, it was a visiting sophomore who stepped up to the plate and snatched the win back for Riverheads.
Braeson Fulton, who had 17 points up to that point, stroked a three from the top of the key, after a brilliant assist from Bond, to put the Gladiators up by two. Page tied it one last time at 65, but the Gladiators were able to withstand the Panthers' furious pressure and even though a lay-up or a foul shot opportunity might have been the coach's preference, Fulton instead decided "what the heck" and cleanly stroked his third trey of the game for the dagger that put the Gladiators up 68-65.
After a Panther miss, they were forced to foul and Dunlap made us a little nervous by missing his first of two. But he canned the second one to make it a four point game with only 19 seconds left. Fulton was fouled one last time with only three ticks left and we didn't mind by that time that he only made one of two.
Had he made both, he might have unofficially had a new career high. By scoring seven of RHS' final eight points tonight, he finished with 24, which is not only his career high (again unofficially) but he may have hit it as many as three or four times between this year and last.
Painter finished with 15, Dunlap had 12, Bond finished with 7, and Kinzel and Adams each had 5 very important points, considering the final margin. Even our wide-body Deacon Moore surprised us with a nice baseline jumper that wasn't too far short of a triple to round out the scoring.
With the win, RHS finished at 8-8 in district play, good enough for fifth place. It has already been announced by the Gladiator AD that they will play at Wilson Friday night in a double-header, with the eighth-seeded Lady Gladiators taking the floor first against regular-season champ Wilson, with the boys then taking on the fourth-seeded Hornets.
Both games have the potential to be interesting because the RHS ladies came alive late in the season whereas Wilson might not be as fired up, having clinched the title tonight. As for the boys, Riverheads shocked everyone a couple of weeks ago with a 71-39 romp over the Hornets, but that was of course in Greenville and this one will be at The Hive. Tip off for the ladies will be 6:00.
The JV game tonight more or less followed the same pattern as the varsity, as Riverheads took a big early lead, only to see the Panthers rally back in the second half. This time however, the home team did complete its comeback. Trailing 22-15 at the half, the Panthers first came back to tie it at 24. Riverheads then re-assumed command and appeared to be on the way to victory after all with a 31-24 lead, but PCHS rallied again. They then took their first lead of the game at 42-40 with exactly 3:00 left.
The lead see-sawed back and forth with Page winning 49-47 when an Adam Painter corner triple rimmed out for RHS. Ironically the winning basket for Page, depending on how you look at it, occurred in the second quarter. In a bizarre play you had to see to believe, time was running down and about 5 or 6 guys were frantically volleyballing out around the Page foul line.
Suddenly the ball rocketed toward the basket from the right elbow and somehow found the net just at the horn. I would not want to be the one assigned to officially score it and it is quite possible that a Riverheads player knocked it in during the mad scramble. Considering the final score, you do the math and figure out how important that basket turned out to be.
All in all it was a wild night in Shenandoah and fans got their money's worth. For those of you who followed the much more serious crisis mentioned earlier in the day, I finally decided on the diner, but sadly they were out of peanut butter pie.
I'm not sure I would call it a "scoreboard scandal" as you seem to make it out as though Page was trying to cheat. And please don't blame it on our scoreboard operator Mr Whitaker as he has 42+ years of operating the football and basketball scoreboards at PCHS and in fact, he had the correct score. Our bookkeeper only had 31 for some reason and your bookkeeper also had 31 but "thought" she "had missed something maybe" were her words. As for the game, credit Riverheads for hitting big 3s and Page's shots didn't fall in the 1st half.
As for the JV game, Page JV wasn't the normal team as 2 of the better players were moved up to varsity prior to the game (and 1 of those actually played a decent amount of the 2nd half of the varsity game). The PG for JV was moved up so that took them completely out of their rhythm for at least the 1st quarter.
As for the JV game, Page JV wasn't the normal team as 2 of the better players were moved up to varsity prior to the game (and 1 of those actually played a decent amount of the 2nd half of the varsity game). The PG for JV was moved up so that took them completely out of their rhythm for at least the 1st quarter.
I am sorry if my choice of words offends you, but I simply ask you to keep in mind that I write these reports very late at night and entirely from memory. Also please note that YOU are the one who used the word "cheat" and also notice that I clearly stated that I did not know who was at fault, as opposed to implying that it had to be Page.
So from my vantage point you are taking too much offense over a very simple choice of words. Could I have said "snafu" or "confusion?" I suppose so, but my point in mentioning it at all was because there seemed to be no reason for it happening in the first place. So thanks for taking the fun out of what I personally thought was an excellent description of the game, one in which I gave due credit to your team for their amazing comeback. In fact to both of your teams for that matter.
On another front, I see that once again, a local newspaper and I have a difference in scoring, so you must not be the only one that thinks I am a horse's patoot. The paper has Painter for 17 to my 15. This has happened plenty this season, for some reason, and not to sound arrogant (again!) but I stand by mine in most cases, because generally I write down the scoring exactly as it happens and I also have the benefit of hearing the PA announcer confirm what I had just seen. Also I think sportswriters try to keep rebounds, assists, and other stats instead of just scoring, so that may make their jobs tougher.
Of course in this case, I have even more reason to trust my scoring because the same paper reports this morning that Stuarts Draft recently set a new state record by hitting 18 three-pointers in a game, whereas anybody who follows the Cougars knows that they hit 27, thereby breaking their own record of 26. Now THAT is a pretty big discrepancy!
However, I fully realize that I am not an official scorer and don't claim to be. So anytime I include scoring totals in a story, it is only intended to give a general account of who played well. For example, two of the Riverheads sophomores that I have covered this season will be 1,000 point candidates at some point in the future, but I will certainly NOT take it upon myself to declare when that is about to happen. I will simply make sure the school is aware and let them keep us posted.
In conclusion, I guess we each have the right to support and defend our team as we sit fit, but I think you over-reacted, especially considering that I think I reported accurately and hit both the high and low spots of what was a very entertaining evening.
So from my vantage point you are taking too much offense over a very simple choice of words. Could I have said "snafu" or "confusion?" I suppose so, but my point in mentioning it at all was because there seemed to be no reason for it happening in the first place. So thanks for taking the fun out of what I personally thought was an excellent description of the game, one in which I gave due credit to your team for their amazing comeback. In fact to both of your teams for that matter.
On another front, I see that once again, a local newspaper and I have a difference in scoring, so you must not be the only one that thinks I am a horse's patoot. The paper has Painter for 17 to my 15. This has happened plenty this season, for some reason, and not to sound arrogant (again!) but I stand by mine in most cases, because generally I write down the scoring exactly as it happens and I also have the benefit of hearing the PA announcer confirm what I had just seen. Also I think sportswriters try to keep rebounds, assists, and other stats instead of just scoring, so that may make their jobs tougher.
Of course in this case, I have even more reason to trust my scoring because the same paper reports this morning that Stuarts Draft recently set a new state record by hitting 18 three-pointers in a game, whereas anybody who follows the Cougars knows that they hit 27, thereby breaking their own record of 26. Now THAT is a pretty big discrepancy!
However, I fully realize that I am not an official scorer and don't claim to be. So anytime I include scoring totals in a story, it is only intended to give a general account of who played well. For example, two of the Riverheads sophomores that I have covered this season will be 1,000 point candidates at some point in the future, but I will certainly NOT take it upon myself to declare when that is about to happen. I will simply make sure the school is aware and let them keep us posted.
In conclusion, I guess we each have the right to support and defend our team as we sit fit, but I think you over-reacted, especially considering that I think I reported accurately and hit both the high and low spots of what was a very entertaining evening.
Ok, I over-reacted and I'm the one in the wrong here. That's how you see it. I see it otherwise. And you are correct, I'm not the only one who thinks you're a horse's A$$.
I guess we can either drop this or continue it as long as you want to. I have the time if you do. Again I make the point that every time I report on a game I give the good points and bad points of each team's performance.
Usually that involves just a general start-to-finish recap so that readers can get a feel for the way a game went. Such as one team being behind, as was the case here, but then making a rally to make the game interesting.
When there are unusual things that happen in a game, such as that weird play in the second quarter of the JV game, I try to include that too. So that is why I even mentioned the scoreboard issue at all. I was trying to tie it into the general theme of my post, which was that Riverheads won the game by overcoming some obstacles.
Now you could argue, and it would be a legitimate argument, that many games have scoreboard or timing issues, so why even make a point of any one of them? But what made this one odd to me was the fact that it was different from most. 90% of the time a scoreboard problem is going to happen because points are not put up on the board correctly or in a timely fashion and someone goes ape about it just to make sure it is corrected before it is too late or forgotten. In fact, I don't know if it still exists at any level of basketball, but there used to be a rule that said a correction to the score had to be made before the next points were scored or otherwise it would be too late.
In this case, your nice gentleman (you know the one that I did NOT insult or demean in any way) put the basket on the board to make it 32, and then correctly put the free throw up to make it 33. So it had to look odd to anyone who noticed, even Page fans, when the scoreboard went back to 31. The issue was immediately brought up for discussion by the Riverheads' coaches, as they certainly needed to do, and it was corrected.
So someone simply made a mistake. Was it the Riverheads statistician or the Page one, or a combination? Who knows? Logically one of them had to lean over and tell your man to take two points off the board, so that would indeed seem to exonerate him from any wrongdoing if he simply did what he was told. So that is why my original post does not accuse him directly.. I simply said that I did not know who made the mistake.
But the bottom line on that subject is that I did not use the word "cheat." That came from you, and I think I have every right to take offense to it, especially since I gave Page its due credit in my review. Cheat is a strong word implying intentional dishonesty and I did not do that. If anyone objective can come on here and convince me otherwise, I will certainly apologize for it.
If I had reported the game the way you seem to think I reported it, then I would not have used terms like "incredibly spirited rally by the Panthers" and "unconscious shooting of their own." Instead you chose to ignore those compliments of your team and zero in on one simple word (scandal) which was clearly meant to be humorous, as was quite a lot of my post. ("them there psychics," "sadly they were out of peanut butter pie.")
I will be the absolute first to admit and in fact I will say it as many times as I need to say it, that I DO get carried away when I write. You only have to read the original post and now this reply to realize that. So I am sure that other casual readers on here sometimes come on just looking for scores and are puzzled by my style. They probably say things like "why didn't he simply say that Riverheads won?" Why does he think we need to read all this detail?
But I do it for the fun of it, and sorry to tell you but you are in the minority based on the compliments I get. Numerous Riverheads people tell me they enjoy my posts, and in fact I had a relative of one of our players approach me recently and tell me that my posts helped her keep up with the games even though she lives 6 or 8 states away. Also there are some readers on here from other schools who seem to enjoy my posts.
I guess I could fuss at you today for the horse's ass comment, but that is such a humorous term and after all I planted the seed myself by using the more polite "patoot." So we will let that one slide without any offense being taken. If all this multitude of others that you speak of feel that way, I am sure they will make themselves known.
So what we have here folks, using an old historic quote, is a "failure to communicate." I started us down this road by using a word that you either found offensive or failed to understand in the context it was used. So if that makes me a bad person then so be it. I on the other hand think you, out of understandable loyalty to your team, took it more negatively than you needed to.
The simple truth is probably that we are both wonderful people in our own right who will occasionally be horse's patoots, whether we intend to be or not. One of the things you will also learn about 35 or so years down the road when you are my age, is that you cannot always accurately interpret the printed word because you don't have the benefit of seeing the person's body language or facial expressions behind those words.
So moving forward, I will keep doing what I do, until I develop carpal tunnel or keel over, whichever comes first. If I make an enemy somewhere along the line, well that's life. But for what it is worth, I am still the same nice person ("most of the time") that introduced himself to you up there one time and you seemed to be an equally nice guy. Until we find out otherwise, I am going to choose to believe that each one of us still fits that description.
Good luck in the playoffs but the reality of that situation is that all of our fates were sealed (in basketball at least) when the decision was made to move Lee to the Shenandoah. I fear that we will be stuck in that quicksand for quite a few years to come. But that is a topic for another discussion.
Usually that involves just a general start-to-finish recap so that readers can get a feel for the way a game went. Such as one team being behind, as was the case here, but then making a rally to make the game interesting.
When there are unusual things that happen in a game, such as that weird play in the second quarter of the JV game, I try to include that too. So that is why I even mentioned the scoreboard issue at all. I was trying to tie it into the general theme of my post, which was that Riverheads won the game by overcoming some obstacles.
Now you could argue, and it would be a legitimate argument, that many games have scoreboard or timing issues, so why even make a point of any one of them? But what made this one odd to me was the fact that it was different from most. 90% of the time a scoreboard problem is going to happen because points are not put up on the board correctly or in a timely fashion and someone goes ape about it just to make sure it is corrected before it is too late or forgotten. In fact, I don't know if it still exists at any level of basketball, but there used to be a rule that said a correction to the score had to be made before the next points were scored or otherwise it would be too late.
In this case, your nice gentleman (you know the one that I did NOT insult or demean in any way) put the basket on the board to make it 32, and then correctly put the free throw up to make it 33. So it had to look odd to anyone who noticed, even Page fans, when the scoreboard went back to 31. The issue was immediately brought up for discussion by the Riverheads' coaches, as they certainly needed to do, and it was corrected.
So someone simply made a mistake. Was it the Riverheads statistician or the Page one, or a combination? Who knows? Logically one of them had to lean over and tell your man to take two points off the board, so that would indeed seem to exonerate him from any wrongdoing if he simply did what he was told. So that is why my original post does not accuse him directly.. I simply said that I did not know who made the mistake.
But the bottom line on that subject is that I did not use the word "cheat." That came from you, and I think I have every right to take offense to it, especially since I gave Page its due credit in my review. Cheat is a strong word implying intentional dishonesty and I did not do that. If anyone objective can come on here and convince me otherwise, I will certainly apologize for it.
If I had reported the game the way you seem to think I reported it, then I would not have used terms like "incredibly spirited rally by the Panthers" and "unconscious shooting of their own." Instead you chose to ignore those compliments of your team and zero in on one simple word (scandal) which was clearly meant to be humorous, as was quite a lot of my post. ("them there psychics," "sadly they were out of peanut butter pie.")
I will be the absolute first to admit and in fact I will say it as many times as I need to say it, that I DO get carried away when I write. You only have to read the original post and now this reply to realize that. So I am sure that other casual readers on here sometimes come on just looking for scores and are puzzled by my style. They probably say things like "why didn't he simply say that Riverheads won?" Why does he think we need to read all this detail?
But I do it for the fun of it, and sorry to tell you but you are in the minority based on the compliments I get. Numerous Riverheads people tell me they enjoy my posts, and in fact I had a relative of one of our players approach me recently and tell me that my posts helped her keep up with the games even though she lives 6 or 8 states away. Also there are some readers on here from other schools who seem to enjoy my posts.
I guess I could fuss at you today for the horse's ass comment, but that is such a humorous term and after all I planted the seed myself by using the more polite "patoot." So we will let that one slide without any offense being taken. If all this multitude of others that you speak of feel that way, I am sure they will make themselves known.
So what we have here folks, using an old historic quote, is a "failure to communicate." I started us down this road by using a word that you either found offensive or failed to understand in the context it was used. So if that makes me a bad person then so be it. I on the other hand think you, out of understandable loyalty to your team, took it more negatively than you needed to.
The simple truth is probably that we are both wonderful people in our own right who will occasionally be horse's patoots, whether we intend to be or not. One of the things you will also learn about 35 or so years down the road when you are my age, is that you cannot always accurately interpret the printed word because you don't have the benefit of seeing the person's body language or facial expressions behind those words.
So moving forward, I will keep doing what I do, until I develop carpal tunnel or keel over, whichever comes first. If I make an enemy somewhere along the line, well that's life. But for what it is worth, I am still the same nice person ("most of the time") that introduced himself to you up there one time and you seemed to be an equally nice guy. Until we find out otherwise, I am going to choose to believe that each one of us still fits that description.
Good luck in the playoffs but the reality of that situation is that all of our fates were sealed (in basketball at least) when the decision was made to move Lee to the Shenandoah. I fear that we will be stuck in that quicksand for quite a few years to come. But that is a topic for another discussion.
