Anyone who reads that score will assume that this was never a game. Well in all fairness to Cumberland, they were on fire from the very beginning and very much deserved the win, but there WAS that "one little stretch" of about three minutes when fans on both sides had to be sitting there thinking ...."they are not REALLY going to do this, are they?"
That is of course a reference to the above-mentioned rally that Riverheads produced in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter. They were trailing 52-29 after three and of course everyone knew it was over. But the Gladiators went on that 13-0 rampage to open the quarter and with 5 minutes to go, they were down only 10, and I am sure all of us have watched enough basketball to know that a 10-point lead can evaporate in a hurry.
But instead of Riverheads pulling off a once-in-a-lifetime comeback, their rally only caused the Dukes to get fired up one last time and finish the game with a monstrous surge of their own, which they did, helped along by a frustration technical against the Gladiators. So the final was one of the largest leads of the game, even though RHS did make it interesting for at least a short while.
The big difference in this game had to be the Duke's torrid shooting from behind the arc. Above someone said that they had 7 threes in the first half. I would have guessed more like 9 and probably between 12 and 15 for the game, but I will trust that source and maybe it just SEEMED like every shot they took went in. Riverheads only hit five on the evening but three of those came in the final quarter after the issue had been decided.
The widebody for Cumberland also made a huge difference, as Riverheads had no one who could handle him. By the way I cannot mention any Dukes players by name simply because there was no program or roster available to fans tonight. Anyway, Mr. Big, whoever he is, was definitely a factor, but those threes really told the story of the game.
Things started off slowly as 5 points from Grant Painter tied things up for RHS, and an inside bucket from Drew Bond even gave the Big Red an early 7-5 lead. But the barrage of threes started shortly after that and before you knew it, the Dukes were up 28-9. As mentioned above, Bradley Roberts went down with an injury so soon in the game we didn't even get to find out if he would have been a factor.
Midway through the second period, with Cumberland leading by 18, the Gladiators inserted freshman Adam Painter, younger brother of Grant, into the line-up and he immediately (with a capital I) stroked a triple from the right wing to trim the lead to 15. At that point, Big Red fans were hoping we could whittle the lead to 10 or so by the break, but instead the Dukes held the margin at 18.
For RHS in the second half, Zack Adams was a pleasant surprise. He was essentially Roberts' replacement, and scored six of the Gladiators' 10 points in the third quarter and added a triple from the left corner as part of the Big Red surge in the fourth to finish with a season-high 9 point game.
That fourth-quarter burst began with a three from Braeson Fulton, who had been quiet to that point. Grant Painter, who would go on to lead Riverheads with 22, added a reverse lay-up and his second three of the game as the Gladiators scored 8 of that 13-point run in just over a minute of clock time. A Fulton driving lay-up capped it off and made the score 52-42, but instead of cutting into the lead further, the Dukes re-assumed complete command as some of their crowd-favorite subs added to the three-point parade.
So my take on this game is that it was the Gladiators' rotten luck to have caught Cumberland on what might have been its hottest shooting night of the year. Or maybe their fans would tell us that they always shoot that well. Whatever the case, Big Red fans would have much rather seen the team that Lunenburg had beaten this season, since RHS pummeled the Chargers by 25 on Tuesday. But what can you say....different night, different gym.
The Gladiators will now take on Region A champ Lancaster next weekend and I am being told that game will be at W and L Montross. So Big Red fans will get their atlases (atlii?) out and start looking that one up. Hopefully the talk at practice this week will focus on playing with tonight's fourth quarter intensity from the opening tip.
As for the Dukes, they have to be on top of the world now, as they rocked all three games at home this week, winning each one by 20 or more. So they likely have to be considered a favorite to make it to VCU. I believe a home game (which is to say a game that will be played somewhere "near" Cumberland) against Northumberland will be next on their agenda.
