Gate City

[blackknight_pride]

I saw a lot of teams play at the fall shootout Roanoke College always has in September yesterday. The local teams from my area (Western Albemarle, Albemarle, Charlottesville) performed pretty well. There were a number of good teams there, including Julian Wooden (JMU) and Northside as well as now-McClung-less Gate City. Gate City was able to handle Northside, winning by about ten and then beat 3a state runner-up Western Albemarle by almost 20 as well. Bradley and Zac are the real deal, they played very well overall and I wouldn't be surprised if they're back at VCU this winter.

 

[leemen]

I figure that Gate City may even be tougher this season. McClung was incredible and took over a lot of games for them last year. With Zac and Bradley back...I expect they will be a team that can spread the ball around and have more options to score. Radford who had an incredible season last year...returns everyone I believe. I think for Lee(Staunton) they will have to reload and may not be at their full potential until mid to late January. I would pick Gate City/Radford as early favorites in 2A. You can never count out the Leemen, Martinsville, Brunswick as far as the traditional powers go. There will be surprises too I'm sure.

Speaking of 2A...Lee and Martinsville will play each other Jan 12th in Lexington,Va.

 

[sharkfan83]

I didnt realize that GC was slated to play in that tournament. How good is Northside and Western Alb. supposed to be this year? Theres several players, 2 in particular, thats playing football right now for GC that I feel will be a big addition to the team when they transition to the hardwoods. They are young but will offer good depth and help tremendously with rebounding and defense.

I felt GC would be very solid again this year and scoring would be more spread out. I think the defense will be much improved as well.....several young guards coming up that really bring the heat on D.

As far as teams that I think will be in the mix this year from the southwestern portion of the state.......Graham and Radford jump out at me along with GC. Other teams that are almost a given....Martinsville will be very tough no doubt and im sure Dan River will be there as well.

Anyone that has any info on teams closer to Richmond feel free to chime in. Id like to get some early hardwoods talk stirring around here.

 

[blackknight_pride]

I didnt realize that GC was slated to play in that tournament. How good is Northside and Western Alb. supposed to be this year? Theres several players, 2 in particular, thats playing football right now for GC that I feel will be a big addition to the team when they transition to the hardwoods. They are young but will offer good depth and help tremendously with rebounding and defense.

I felt GC would be very solid again this year and scoring would be more spread out. I think the defense will be much improved as well.....several young guards coming up that really bring the heat on D.

As far as teams that I think will be in the mix this year from the southwestern portion of the state.......Graham and Radford jump out at me along with GC. Other teams that are almost a given....Martinsville will be very tough no doubt and im sure Dan River will be there as well.

Anyone that has any info on teams closer to Richmond feel free to chime in. Id like to get some early hardwoods talk stirring around here.

I think the favorites from the west in Class 3 are Northside, Spotswood, and Western in that order...so that's impressive that Gate City was able to handle two of those teams. Again, there were teams with missing football players as you said but still a competitive tournament where Gate City played really well.

 

[sharkfan83]

I appreciate the info! I looked and couldnt find anything on the scores or any of the games in general. But yes.....im sure those teams were missing players and it changed their teams makeup altogether. Still glad to hear GC did well against what should be top tier 3A competition.

Was GCs scoring spread out or was it the Dean and Ervin show?

 

[blackknight_pride]

I appreciate the info! I looked and couldnt find anything on the scores or any of the games in general. But yes.....im sure those teams were missing players and it changed their teams makeup altogether. Still glad to hear GC did well against what should be top tier 3A competition.

Was GCs scoring spread out or was it the Dean and Ervin show?

I saw the last seven or so minutes of the Northside game, Gate City was up eight when I came in and Northside starting fouling. Dean and Ervin hit a lot of clutch FTs but that's about all that I saw. The final score of that game was 77-71 I'm pretty sure, so very high scoring. On the other end GC did a pretty decent job on Wooden for Northside, Ervin guarded him well.

Against Western, it was close for a little more than a half but GC starting shooting the lights out and really turned up the pressure on D. The final score of that one was 67-51 and if I had to guess Ervin had around 25 with at least four three pointers and Dean probably had around 20. The others guys played well, especially on defense. On offense, Ervin and Dean were the go to guys but the other players stepped up and hit big shots when it mattered.

 

[sharkfan83]

I saw the last seven or so minutes of the Northside game, Gate City was up eight when I came in and Northside starting fouling. Dean and Ervin hit a lot of clutch FTs but that's about all that I saw. The final score of that game was 77-71 I'm pretty sure, so very high scoring. On the other end GC did a pretty decent job on Wooden for Northside, Ervin guarded him well.

Against Western, it was close for a little more than a half but GC starting shooting the lights out and really turned up the pressure on D. The final score of that one was 67-51 and if I had to guess Ervin had around 25 with at least four three pointers and Dean probably had around 20. The others guys played well, especially on defense. On offense, Ervin and Dean were the go to guys but the other players stepped up and hit big shots when it mattered.

Again, really appreciate the insight. I knew the young guys would bring a good intensity on defense which GC needed and figured they would be solid again this year overall. Was there any other 2A teams that played in the shootout?

 

[blackknight_pride]

Again, really appreciate the insight. I knew the young guys would bring a good intensity on defense which GC needed and figured they would be solid again this year overall. Was there any other 2A teams that played in the shootout?

I'm pretty sure the only other 2A team there was Glenvar, and Gate City didn't play them.

 

[sharkfan83]

I'm pretty sure the only other 2A team there was Glenvar, and Gate City didn't play them.

Well if theres any more tournaments up your way feel free to post the scores and what the teams look like. I normally am neck deep in football right now but theres just not much positive to talk about with GC football currently. I still support them 100% and go watch them....but its tough to stomach it and talk about it.

 

[blackknight_pride]

Well if theres any more tournaments up your way feel free to post the scores and what the teams look like. I normally am neck deep in football right now but theres just not much positive to talk about with GC football currently. I still support them 100% and go watch them....but its tough to stomach it and talk about it.

I'm in a similar situation, Charlottesville football is plagued with injury right now and it's tough. Can't wait for basketball season lol

 

[Marshall-Dillon]

I saw the last seven or so minutes of the Northside game, Gate City was up eight when I came in and Northside starting fouling. Dean and Ervin hit a lot of clutch FTs but that's about all that I saw. The final score of that game was 77-71 I'm pretty sure, so very high scoring. On the other end GC did a pretty decent job on Wooden for Northside, Ervin guarded him well.

Against Western, it was close for a little more than a half but GC starting shooting the lights out and really turned up the pressure on D. The final score of that one was 67-51 and if I had to guess Ervin had around 25 with at least four three pointers and Dean probably had around 20. The others guys played well, especially on defense. On offense, Ervin and Dean were the go to guys but the other players stepped up and hit big shots when it mattered.

Did Western have Mangrum and Payne in this game? If they did and GC still handled them, I’m impressed!

 

[blackknight_pride]

Did Western have Mangrum and Payne in this game? If they did and GC still handled them, I’m impressed!

No Payne, but Mangrum played and guarded Ervin.

 

[Marshall-Dillon]

No Payne, but Mangrum played and guarded Ervin.

That changes my expectation a bit. Payne is legit, even if he signed with NCST as a baseball player! He can score! Still expect GC to be a contender though maybe not the front runner.