BOYS BB: (1A) Riverheads 71 (2A) Wilson Memorial 39 - FINAL
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BOYS HOOPS: Gladiators stun Wilson in 71-39 rout
Riverheads' Grant Painter
GREENVILLE — If you begin to ask Riverheads head coach Chad Coffey about the youth on his roster, he begins to shake his head in dispute.
Despite his roster featuring just one senior and eight juniors and sophomores, his team is experienced.
“We tell them all the time that they’re not sophomores at this point,” Coffey said. “They’re juniors. I don’t let them slide with sophomore mistakes. For a lot of these guys, they’ve been with me since they were freshmen. … They’ve played more high school basketball games at this point than most kids do in their careers.”
It showed on Tuesday night as the Gladiators used a dominating performance on both ends of the court to upset Wilson Memorial 71-39 in Shenandoah District boys basketball action.
After previously winning nine straight games, the Green Hornets, who entered Tuesday night’s contest in second place in league play, have now dropped back-to-back contests.
Riverheads, meanwhile, has now won a trio of games after losing seven of the previous eight.
“We went through that stretch,” Coffey said. “I think everyone is aware we were struggling a bit but at no point did anyone on this team lose heart. These guys are gutsy. If anything, struggling brought us closer together. They have a goal in mind. They’re workers and they are going to do whatever to make it happen.”
Wilson’s only lead of the game came on a bucket from Matt Poole in the lane off an assist from Garrick Welch with just under five minutes remaining in the opening period.
From there, it was all Riverheads.
Bradley Roberts responded with a corner 3 followed by a Drew Bond bucket in transition and another trey from Braeson Fulton to quickly double up the Hornets.
Fulton later added back-to-back three point plays to stretch the lead to nine and Zack Adams scored just before the quarter buzzer to put Riverheads up 25-15 through one.
In the second, Wilson cut it as close as seven on a driving score from Jacob Sears but the Gladiators responded with a 9-2 run that included a couple of buckets from Fulton and Bond along with a 3 from Grant Painter to go intermission up 15.
“We did a great job,” Coffey said. “We went into halftime and targeted offensive rebounding opportunities in the first half. The guys made adjustments and did the simple things that developed within a game. I couldn’t be prouder but we still have a long way to go.”
In the third, Painter started things off with a 3 and Fulton then got hot with a trio of jumpers to open up a 27-point lead and never looked back.
“It’s great to have,” Coffey said of all the different offensive weapons. “I have almost been adamant about playing solid defense. I want as balanced scoring as I can get. This team has that. It’s different guys on different nights that lift up and take off. … We made the extra pass at the right times tonight. We got good looks and high percentage shots. You put the two together and you have a good recipe for a win.”
Fulton had a game-high 21 points to lead Riverheads while Painter had 15, Bond had 11 and Elijah Dunlap added nine. Adams also finished with six for the Gladiators.
For Wilson, Poole finished with 19 while Greg Woodard had six.
“Tonight was Riverheads playing basketball the way we’ve expected to play basketball every game,” Coffey said. “We just haven’t done it.”“Offensively, defensively, we looked sharp on both ends of the court tonight,” he added. “It’s the first game of the season we’ve taken care of business on both ends.”
Riverheads (7-8, 5-7) is back on the court Friday at district foe Luray (5-12, 3-8) while the Hornets (11-6, 8-3) take on Page County at home (9-8, 5-6) that same evening.
“We’re hungry right now,” Coffey said. “The guys are hungry. Hopefully we can continue this.”
- By CODY ELLIOTT For The News Virginian
Riverheads' Grant Painter
GREENVILLE — If you begin to ask Riverheads head coach Chad Coffey about the youth on his roster, he begins to shake his head in dispute.
Despite his roster featuring just one senior and eight juniors and sophomores, his team is experienced.
“We tell them all the time that they’re not sophomores at this point,” Coffey said. “They’re juniors. I don’t let them slide with sophomore mistakes. For a lot of these guys, they’ve been with me since they were freshmen. … They’ve played more high school basketball games at this point than most kids do in their careers.”
It showed on Tuesday night as the Gladiators used a dominating performance on both ends of the court to upset Wilson Memorial 71-39 in Shenandoah District boys basketball action.
After previously winning nine straight games, the Green Hornets, who entered Tuesday night’s contest in second place in league play, have now dropped back-to-back contests.
Riverheads, meanwhile, has now won a trio of games after losing seven of the previous eight.
“We went through that stretch,” Coffey said. “I think everyone is aware we were struggling a bit but at no point did anyone on this team lose heart. These guys are gutsy. If anything, struggling brought us closer together. They have a goal in mind. They’re workers and they are going to do whatever to make it happen.”
Wilson’s only lead of the game came on a bucket from Matt Poole in the lane off an assist from Garrick Welch with just under five minutes remaining in the opening period.
From there, it was all Riverheads.
Bradley Roberts responded with a corner 3 followed by a Drew Bond bucket in transition and another trey from Braeson Fulton to quickly double up the Hornets.
Fulton later added back-to-back three point plays to stretch the lead to nine and Zack Adams scored just before the quarter buzzer to put Riverheads up 25-15 through one.
In the second, Wilson cut it as close as seven on a driving score from Jacob Sears but the Gladiators responded with a 9-2 run that included a couple of buckets from Fulton and Bond along with a 3 from Grant Painter to go intermission up 15.
“We did a great job,” Coffey said. “We went into halftime and targeted offensive rebounding opportunities in the first half. The guys made adjustments and did the simple things that developed within a game. I couldn’t be prouder but we still have a long way to go.”
In the third, Painter started things off with a 3 and Fulton then got hot with a trio of jumpers to open up a 27-point lead and never looked back.
“It’s great to have,” Coffey said of all the different offensive weapons. “I have almost been adamant about playing solid defense. I want as balanced scoring as I can get. This team has that. It’s different guys on different nights that lift up and take off. … We made the extra pass at the right times tonight. We got good looks and high percentage shots. You put the two together and you have a good recipe for a win.”
Fulton had a game-high 21 points to lead Riverheads while Painter had 15, Bond had 11 and Elijah Dunlap added nine. Adams also finished with six for the Gladiators.
For Wilson, Poole finished with 19 while Greg Woodard had six.
“Tonight was Riverheads playing basketball the way we’ve expected to play basketball every game,” Coffey said. “We just haven’t done it.”“Offensively, defensively, we looked sharp on both ends of the court tonight,” he added. “It’s the first game of the season we’ve taken care of business on both ends.”
Riverheads (7-8, 5-7) is back on the court Friday at district foe Luray (5-12, 3-8) while the Hornets (11-6, 8-3) take on Page County at home (9-8, 5-6) that same evening.
“We’re hungry right now,” Coffey said. “The guys are hungry. Hopefully we can continue this.”
This article gives you a pretty good idea of how this game went but I have some slightly different scoring here and there, but mainly I feel as if this article simply does not do the Gladiators' performance justice. This was by far RHS' best overall game of the season and the most amazing thing about it was to see a running clock put into effect.
Red Pride fans are quite familiar with the running clock in football and we have probably seen it 20-25 times or more over the years, but this is the first time we have seen one implemented in basketball. For those of you who don't know, if a team is ahead by 30 points at any point in the fourth quarter, the clock runs continuously. So Riverheads got ahead 69-39 midway through the quarter and just ran the weave until the clock ran out.
As for building the lead to get to that point, I would be hard pressed to find any area of the game tonight in which Riverheads did not excel. First of all, for the second game in a row, they got the balanced scoring that Coach Coffey mentioned that every coach wants to see. Just like with the Stonewall game, they had three starters in double figures with two others almost getting there.
My scoring totals, and of course I am far from being anyone official, had Fulton with 21, Painter with 15, and Drew Bond with 11. Bradley Roberts came up just one point shy at 9, but I only have Elijah Dunlap with 7, all of which came from the foul line. As for the writer's contention that Zach Adams had six..I only have him for two. But after such an exciting win, why should we quibble over who got what? Truth is this game whizzed by at such a brisk pace that it was hard for me or this writer or anyone else to keep up with these guys!
Riverheads definitely shot extremely well both from the field and the foul line. I don't keep missed foul shots in my notes, but if they had any at all tonight, there were very few. They used the three-point line sparingly, but wisely, as the four leading scorers just mentioned combined for six of them. Fulton and Painter had two each, with Roberts and Bond getting lucky bounces on theirs but hey...they dropped when they needed to drop as it was that kind of night for the Big Red.
Speaking of fouls, that was another factor that impacted this game considerably. In the very early going, the refs hit RHS for five fouls, which had a hand in Wilson taking its only lead of the game at 6-4. At that point, even though it was early, that might have been cause for concern for the Big Red, since they only carry nine guys on the roster. But as it turned out, they solved that problem by cutting down on the fouls considerably and if anything, it was Wilson that was in foul trouble by the end of the game. I don't think anyone for Riverheads finished with more than three.
Keeping those fouls under control was really a key factor in the game because it was a high-powered, energetic game from start to finish and the Gladiators had a TON of steals and deflections that they turned into points. So that is one aspect of their game (overall quickness) that has really come along. That same quickness was very much in evidence on the offensive end as well as the Big Red had a great night making the extra pass to find the open man.
So definitely a night in which RHS was clicking on all cylinders and I think they surprised everyone. Now the question will be if they can keep it up, especially considering that they have a daunting schedule ahead. Are you ready for this.........they have games Friday night (at Luray); Saturday afternoon (vs. Parry McCluer at the Rock the Ribbon Classic); Monday night at Fort Defiance; and Tuesday night at home against R E Lee. It all goes back to the extended football season, which happens every year, and I guess they can handle it at their ages, but I am exhausted just thinking about it!
If I had one complaint tonight about this game, and I think it is time to bring this up, because it is apparently an area-wide problem, it would be the attendance. Where in the world IS everybody this year and why are they not coming out to see these games? Riverheads did "OK" tonight I guess but that was due in part to having the Little League team there to take a bow.
I have now been to games at almost every school in the area, and I have YET to see a decent student section at any of them. So at Riverheads and every other school, let's talk up these games and get the kids out there to make some noise. This game tonight, as great as it was, was played in front of an almost entirely adult audience, and it got the kind of polite applause you would expect to find at an art gallery, so LET'S GET LOUD PEOPLE!
To wrap up my review, Riverheads treated us to yet another interesting JV game tonight. They jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead, thanks mainly to two quick triples from freshman Adam Painter, who is already showing signs of being an all-time great for the Big Red.
But to Wilson's credit, they clamped down on him and he did not hit any more from behind the arc. Wilson in fact caught fire in the two middle quarters, led by as many as 9, and took a 29-24 lead into the fourth quarter.
That is when an unsung hero stepped up and essentially won the game for the Gladiators. It was not Painter, although he did score the go-ahead basket in Riverheads' 40-37 win, and it was not his reliable backcourt mate Michael Robertson, who added an insurance basket just before the final horn.
Instead the Gladiators were saved tonight by a 5'5" eighth-grader named Ryan Farris, who probably weighs all of 90 pounds. He came off the bench to score on a fast-break lay-up and a corner three to open the fourth quarter for RHS and later added a second triple from the opposite corner to set the stage for the two more experienced guys to seal the deal.
So another great win for the Jr. G'men, who just like the varsity are now 7-8 after tonight's satisfying doubleheader.
Red Pride fans are quite familiar with the running clock in football and we have probably seen it 20-25 times or more over the years, but this is the first time we have seen one implemented in basketball. For those of you who don't know, if a team is ahead by 30 points at any point in the fourth quarter, the clock runs continuously. So Riverheads got ahead 69-39 midway through the quarter and just ran the weave until the clock ran out.
As for building the lead to get to that point, I would be hard pressed to find any area of the game tonight in which Riverheads did not excel. First of all, for the second game in a row, they got the balanced scoring that Coach Coffey mentioned that every coach wants to see. Just like with the Stonewall game, they had three starters in double figures with two others almost getting there.
My scoring totals, and of course I am far from being anyone official, had Fulton with 21, Painter with 15, and Drew Bond with 11. Bradley Roberts came up just one point shy at 9, but I only have Elijah Dunlap with 7, all of which came from the foul line. As for the writer's contention that Zach Adams had six..I only have him for two. But after such an exciting win, why should we quibble over who got what? Truth is this game whizzed by at such a brisk pace that it was hard for me or this writer or anyone else to keep up with these guys!
Riverheads definitely shot extremely well both from the field and the foul line. I don't keep missed foul shots in my notes, but if they had any at all tonight, there were very few. They used the three-point line sparingly, but wisely, as the four leading scorers just mentioned combined for six of them. Fulton and Painter had two each, with Roberts and Bond getting lucky bounces on theirs but hey...they dropped when they needed to drop as it was that kind of night for the Big Red.
Speaking of fouls, that was another factor that impacted this game considerably. In the very early going, the refs hit RHS for five fouls, which had a hand in Wilson taking its only lead of the game at 6-4. At that point, even though it was early, that might have been cause for concern for the Big Red, since they only carry nine guys on the roster. But as it turned out, they solved that problem by cutting down on the fouls considerably and if anything, it was Wilson that was in foul trouble by the end of the game. I don't think anyone for Riverheads finished with more than three.
Keeping those fouls under control was really a key factor in the game because it was a high-powered, energetic game from start to finish and the Gladiators had a TON of steals and deflections that they turned into points. So that is one aspect of their game (overall quickness) that has really come along. That same quickness was very much in evidence on the offensive end as well as the Big Red had a great night making the extra pass to find the open man.
So definitely a night in which RHS was clicking on all cylinders and I think they surprised everyone. Now the question will be if they can keep it up, especially considering that they have a daunting schedule ahead. Are you ready for this.........they have games Friday night (at Luray); Saturday afternoon (vs. Parry McCluer at the Rock the Ribbon Classic); Monday night at Fort Defiance; and Tuesday night at home against R E Lee. It all goes back to the extended football season, which happens every year, and I guess they can handle it at their ages, but I am exhausted just thinking about it!
If I had one complaint tonight about this game, and I think it is time to bring this up, because it is apparently an area-wide problem, it would be the attendance. Where in the world IS everybody this year and why are they not coming out to see these games? Riverheads did "OK" tonight I guess but that was due in part to having the Little League team there to take a bow.
I have now been to games at almost every school in the area, and I have YET to see a decent student section at any of them. So at Riverheads and every other school, let's talk up these games and get the kids out there to make some noise. This game tonight, as great as it was, was played in front of an almost entirely adult audience, and it got the kind of polite applause you would expect to find at an art gallery, so LET'S GET LOUD PEOPLE!
To wrap up my review, Riverheads treated us to yet another interesting JV game tonight. They jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead, thanks mainly to two quick triples from freshman Adam Painter, who is already showing signs of being an all-time great for the Big Red.
But to Wilson's credit, they clamped down on him and he did not hit any more from behind the arc. Wilson in fact caught fire in the two middle quarters, led by as many as 9, and took a 29-24 lead into the fourth quarter.
That is when an unsung hero stepped up and essentially won the game for the Gladiators. It was not Painter, although he did score the go-ahead basket in Riverheads' 40-37 win, and it was not his reliable backcourt mate Michael Robertson, who added an insurance basket just before the final horn.
Instead the Gladiators were saved tonight by a 5'5" eighth-grader named Ryan Farris, who probably weighs all of 90 pounds. He came off the bench to score on a fast-break lay-up and a corner three to open the fourth quarter for RHS and later added a second triple from the opposite corner to set the stage for the two more experienced guys to seal the deal.
So another great win for the Jr. G'men, who just like the varsity are now 7-8 after tonight's satisfying doubleheader.
Actually @longtimerhsfan the running clock is implemented after a 30 point lead regardless of what quarter it's in. Our girls were leading Battle by 30+ in the third quarter last night and the mercy rule was instituted.
My understanding is that in the Shenandoah District, the 30 point running clock does not come into play until the 4th quarter. That's how it has been implemented so far this season.
These two teams are certainly hard to figure out!
You would've thought their records had been switched with one another.
It almost seemed that way! Wilson just seemed totally lost once it became obvious that Riverheads was not going to be denied on this particular night. By the way, their leading scorer was Matt Poole with 19, which means the rest of the team only combined for 20 points.
