BOYS: State QF - Amelia County (45) Richlands (40) - FINAL

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GROUP 2A BOYS STATE TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Quarterfinals and semifinals at James Madison University
Quarterfinals - March 3
Chatham (West #4) vs. Madison County (East #1), 2:30
Amelia County (East #3) vs. Richlands (West #2), 4:15
Bruton (East #4) vs. Dan River (West #1), 6 p.m.
Gate City (West #3) vs. Robert E. Lee (East #2), 7:45
Semifinals - March 4
First two winners play, 4:15
Second two winners play, 7:45
Championship - March 9, at VCU
Semifinal winners 8:30

 

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Richlands takes early 2-0 lead on basket by Phillips.

Photo by Allen Gregory

 

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Five straight points for Amelia County, up 5-2 on Richlands.

 

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After eight exhilarating minutes, Amelia leads Richlands 12-6.

 

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Amelia County 18, Richlands 7 with 6:23 left in the first half. Quickness and defense

 

[sharkfan83]

20-7 Amelia leads with 5 mins left in the 2nd qtr

 

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Amelia County started 0-6 from field, is 5-8 since then. Richlands 3 for 12.

 

[sharkfan83]

Blues sink a 3 to cut the lead to 8. Amelia leads 22-14 with 3 left in the first half.

 

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Scottie Ball gets a 3-point play for Richlands and gets his team within 3 of Amelia late in 2Q

 

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Halftime: Amelia 24, Richlands 19

 

[toneloc23]

Wow who looks like better team

 

[sharkfan83]

To me Richlands looks to be a much better team....Just playing poorly. But the same goes for the Chatham/Madison game. I thought Madison looked 20-30 pts better....But it just didn't happen that way.

Amelia is playing scrappy and causing turnovers when Richlands gets the ball into the paint. Phillips and Ball will have to take the game over in the 2nd half and let Horne do damage when he can from deep.

Very shady first half of ball from both teams though....Didn't look sharp at all.

 

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Thanks to Brian Woodson for the photo

One half of basketball left for one of these teams. Richlands trails Amelia County 24-19. 2nd half starts soon.

 

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Click once to enlarge

 

[sharkfan83]

This game is shaping up to be one that will go down to the wire. Not a very exciting game though

 

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Scottie Ball picks up third foul for Richlands. Still down 24-20

 

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3:57 in 3rd: Amelia 28 Richlands 24. 2017 Scottie Ball attacking the bucket for Richlands, keeping them in the game. He has 14.

 

[sharkfan83]

28-26 Amelia leads with 1 min left in the 3rd.

 

[sharkfan83]

And Richlands takes the lead. 29-28 with 21 secs left.

 

[sharkfan83]

Richlands up 32-31 with Amelia at the charity stripe.

Now tie game 32-32 with 4:49 left.

 

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Scottie Ball has four fouls for Richlands and 18 points.

 

[sharkfan83]

This game will be won or lost on the line. Both teams in the bonus. Scottie Ball at the FT line. Sinks first one. Misses 2nd one.
34-34.

Amelia back to the line on the other end. Makes first FT.....Makes the 2nd.

Amelia leads 36-34. Amelia back to the line after a miss by Phillips.

Amelia sinks both FTs. Lead is now 38-34 Amelia

Ball with a layup but Amelia back to the line on the other end. 38-36 Amelia misses both FTs

 

[pizzzzza]

Amelia County big man Jared Baker done with five fouls.

 

[sharkfan83]

Layup for Scottie Ball. Tie game 38-38.
Amelia with the layup on other end 40-38. Less than a minute left. Richlands ball with 49 secs left.....Amelia leads 40-38.

 

[toneloc23]

Update

 

[sharkfan83]

That's gonna do it. Amelia to the line. Makes both 45-40 with 1 second left.

Ballgame

Amelia wins 45-40

Missed FTs was the story of the game.....For both teams really. Poor shooting from the charity stripe.

 

[pizzzzza]

A lot happened that final minute....

Amelia County basket 40-38. Richlands ball after a mad scramble for ball on AC end of court. Timeout 49.1 seconds left

Turnover Richlands. Amelia one free throw, up 41-38

Grant fouls out for Amelia. Phillips a tip-in of a missed Herndon free throws. Amelia up 41-40 with 11.2 secons left.

Amelia with two free throws. 43-40 with 10 seconds left.

Amelia County - 2 more FTs - hangs on to beat Richlands 45-40, will play Madison County tomorrow in semifinals.

Richlands finishes 21-5

 

[jackbl411]

Fred's Fraud!! The so called Dream team is finished. The biggest fraud in the history of SWVA sports. Phillips team chokes in the end against a mediocre team. This team and all of its accolades were merely fools gold. So you're telling me that a team that supposedly wins a national AAU tournament can't even win in AA of Virginia. Phillips dropped every decent team he could (Bluefield, Union, Radford, etc) so that the record would be glossy and his son would score more points. This team had multiple hold backs (many on the team were already 19 years old). FP screwed many other players over the year so that "his" group would get to play every game for 4 years. For those of you who think FP can coach, look a little closer. This team could not play defense against a good JV team. Scotty Ball would dominate games against better competition. That was the only reason they could even compete. Now its over. What will Fred do now? If he stays, Graham and a few others will easily dominate them. If he leaves, it was clearly just Daddy Ball! Let's see what happens. For transparency, I am from Richlands and many others in my community feel the exact way that I do.

 

[AntGZee]

My ears are still burning!!!!

 

[kwhs95fan]

Glad to see you created a profile just to post that. Obviously I don't have a dog in this fight but to come on a message board and say a bunch of young men choked in a state tournament game is pretty classless to say the least.

 

[WhoopyCushion]

Whoa!!! My ears are bleeding not just burning and I'm no Tornado but that's harsh! Observation no judgement... Heck of a season for the Blues... congrats... I think?

 

[sharkfan83]

Heck of a season for the Blues. Nothing for those guys to hang their heads over.

 

[lucustookis]

This post is a response to Jacksh@#s post about Phillips. First , you are likely from Tazewell or Graham and hate Richlands.. You say Phillips is a fraud? In year one, a complete turnaround in record and in year 2, the first state appearance for Richlands in its history. I would call that......a success. No question, Richlands played a weak schedule, but they did beat Union, Graham one of two times, and beat Chatham. The guy can flat out coach. Richlands is the same ole Richlands in talent of 30, 20, and 10 years ago. You say a dream team? LMAO, what the heck are you talking about? There is no so thing as a dream for a school that has never been to state. The talent for Richlands is the same. The coach is different. He is solid and you are jealous.

 

[longtimerhsfan]

I was neutral for this one as I was all the games today, but the refs called this one so tight, neither team could really get into any kind of rhythm. Both were on the double bonus by the end of the game but neither could hit their charity tosses which kept the game low scoring. You had to feel for Ball, as he scored 24 of his team's 40.

One thing I noticed about Richlands that is not a criticism, just an observation.......I don't know when I have ever seen a team in which all the players were so similar in size and build. Most teams will have at least 1 or 2 guys in the 5'7" or so range that handle the ball and can bomb from outside, and most teams have the big guy inside. But Richlands seemed to have neither and every guy they put on the floor looked to be about 6'1" and about 190. It was almost as if they play a five-forward offense.

 

[lucustookis]

Exactly. That's Richlands in a nut shell. For years and years, their BBall talent has been consistent with some ebbs and flows like any school, but don't let certain posters fool you when they say Richlands has incredible and insane BBall talent. They DON'T. It's the same looking Richlands team I'm size and talent from 20 or even 30 years ago. They have an incredible basketball IQ coach who had no business doing what he did the last two years. You will see after this year with the losses of some good players like Ball, and comes into the season, they will predicted to be down. Watch and see when they are again competitive, and then the county rival sheep will again go silent, or they will only talk about vague, emotional, non factual stuff such as..."Phillips is arrogant or he sucks." Fact is, u take your team to the state tournament for the first time ever and you even win one game while doing so, well......facts say...you are not a joke. Facts say...this guy can coach.

Richlands had ZERO business beating Union or Graham. Both have far better basketball talent. The coach of Richlands simply outcoached the Union and Graham coaches in both games. Before F.Phillips, if the teams are the same and these games are played 3-4 years ago, Richlands would have lost to Union and they would have not split 1-1 against Graham, they would have been 0-2. Also, they would NOT have made it to the state tournament.

When you have a solid coach, your talent always seems to look a little better than what it did before that solid coach got there. That is called.....coaching.

 

[SWVAObserver]

Dear god I hope you are just trolling. Because this rhetoric is getting creepy

 

[Ryan4VT]

I was neutral for this one as I was all the games today, but the refs called this one so tight, neither team could really get into any kind of rhythm. Both were on the double bonus by the end of the game but neither could hit their charity tosses which kept the game low scoring. You had to feel for Ball, as he scored 24 of his team's 40.

One thing I noticed about Richlands that is not a criticism, just an observation.......I don't know when I have ever seen a team in which all the players were so similar in size and build. Most teams will have at least 1 or 2 guys in the 5'7" or so range that handle the ball and can bomb from outside, and most teams have the big guy inside. But Richlands seemed to have neither and every guy they put on the floor looked to be about 6'1" and about 190. It was almost as if they play a five-forward offense.

They had those at one point. Lowe was 6'4 and the big man down low, but he played one game this year and quit. Fuller was the bomber from 3. But he went to Bluefield to follow his dad as an assistant there. He will win a ring there, most likely.

Ball and Phillips are both 6'4, so Richlands did have a couple of taller guys, but they aren't post players. They are forwards that like to live on the wings and slash. This whole team changed when Fuller moved and Lowe & Howie quit after 1 game.

I support Fred 100%. I'm excited to see what he does next year with the loss of 5 seniors but returning several good players.