Actually the final score was 55-46 and you are correct that Riverheads put forth a much better effort than they did last year down there and that they are quite the hustling little team. The truth is this game was a lot closer than even the nine-point margin sounds and RHS actually held the lead for probably 60-70% of the game.
Once again the Gladiators were led by their freshmen, as we started three of them tonight. Braeson Fulton was literally all over the floor for the Big Red and scored a career high 21 points. He also just barely missed a double double with 9 rebounds, despite standing only 5'10". His classmate Elijah Dunlap tied his career high with 10 and also had a solid floor game. Overall the major difference between this team and the one that Altavista was able to handle so easily last year was in team speed. This year's Gladiators, mainly due to the freshmen, are the quickest team we have had in years and they were able to match up with the Colonels tonight, almost to a man.
The game was tied four times in the early going at 2, 4, 6, and 9, with Riverheads taking its first lead on a Dunlap trey. The lead see-sawed a time or two before the Gladiators took a 17-14 first quarter lead on two late lay-ups by senior Brett Hostetler, the second of which barely beat the horn on a fast break.
Fulton opened the second quarter on a nice back door cut, one of several the Big Red executed tonight, and the Gladiators had their biggest lead to that point at 19-14. That particular shot hung forever on the rim before finally dropping. RHS then kept the Colonels at bay for the entire quarter and took a 29-25 lead into the locker room.
Fulton gave the Gladiators their largest lead of the night at 31-25 to open the third quarter but the Colonels warmed up and by the end of the stanza took their largest lead at 38-35. Fulton then canned a three at the horn to send the teams to the benches tied at 38.
In the first minute of the fourth quarter the Gladiators got a HUGE break when the Colonels' big beefy inside enforcer Josh McClure picked up his third foul and immediately got T'd up for protesting the call. Dunlap calmly sank the two foul shots and when play resumed, the cool calm and collected freshman dropped in a longgg three-pointer to put Riverheads ahead 43-38 and fans on both sides started to wonder if that championship plaque was about to get a bus ride back to Greenville.
Following the T, the action slowed down altogether for a few minutes with limited scoring and at the four minute mark, Riverheads was still clinging to a two-point lead at 43-41. The Colonels then turned to their three-point shooters, who drained a couple of crucial ones, and they were able to put the game away, outscoring RHS 14-3 down the stretch. Riverheads did not go down without a fight as the score was still just 47-46 with about a minute and a half left. But the Gladiators went cold at the worst possible time and the Colonels were able to escape with the win.
As reported in another thread here on this website, Riverheads will now travel to Mathews on Tuesday night for the quarter-final round of the 1-A East Regionals. I don't know a thing in the world about them at this point, but if RHS could give this good an effort on the home court of the most dominant team in 1-A the last 15-20 years, then I for one have every reason to think that Mathews will have its hands full Tuesday. Who knows, we could see an A-town/G-ville re-match before all is said and done!
Most folks had been thinking that a team as young as Riverheads would need a year or two to find its identity and make any serious noise, but they made it look tonight as if they are not willing to wait that long. I would not advise anyone to take them lightly the rest of this season and certainly not in the years to come.
