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Gladiators Rebound with Road Win at Fort Defiance

longtimerhsfan

VaPreps All Region
Dec 12, 2006
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Sometimes a talented shooter just needs some time to find his rhythm and that was the case tonight for Riverheads' Adam Painter as the senior bounced back from a horrific first half and reeled off the first 12 points of the third quarter to lead the Big Red to a tense 50-47 comeback win at Fort Defiance. Ironically the Gladiators had lost their opener at home to Staunton on Friday by that exact score.

Painter was simply forcing things in the first half and firing up wild off-balance shots in a well-intended effort to get the Big Red going, and as a result he was scoreless halfway through the second period. Then he did just what they tell you to do on the Teevee.....he got an easy one first with a 10-footer in the lane, and then calmly stripped a pair of charity tosses that were awarded after a technical had been called on the Fort. Little did we know at the time that he would storm back after the break and score 17 of the Big Red's 31 second-half points to lead all scorers with 21.

However, as is often the case, the high scorer is not necessarily the only hero of the game. So RHS Coach Chad Coffey would quite likely have to consider D'ante Gray for Player of the Game honors tonight. The senior guard scored six of Riverheads' first quarter points to keep the Gladiators in the game until Painter could warm up and take over. Then later when the Indians threatened to still pull out a home court victory, Gray kept them at bay with three crucial late foul shots on the way to a career high 13 points.

After a 20-19 halftime lead for the Indians, they moved out to a 29-24 lead and appeared ready to sneak away from the visitors. But Painter was just getting started as he quickly pulled the Gladiators back into the lead with a series of five buckets, two of those coming from behind the arc. Sophomore Bennett Dunlap, a dead-eye shooter in his own right, drilled one from the left corner and his classmate Noah Williams drove the baseline to put RHS ahead 38-30 after three quarters.

A gorgeous dipsy-doodle early in the fourth from Gray gave the Big Red its first double-digit lead of the game, and then came the freeze. And (sigh) I wish I was talking about an intentional delay game to salt away the victory. But unfortunately I mean another freezing of the livestream, accompanied by a scoreboard that danced all over the place. (How many times have you guys seen a 92-20 game with 88:45 left in the first quarter?)

I won't dwell on it much this evening but I do hope the NFHS can iron the bugs out of these streams. If not it will be a longgggg season. Once again I would love to hear from anyone out there who has been lucky enough to see any game all the way through without this happening, so that I will know that yes, it CAN be done.

By the time things returned halfway to normal, the Indians had worked their way back into the game and I could tell that they had 44 on their side of the scoreboard, and it appeared that RHS had 47. That is when Gray stepped to the line and calmly sank his free throws to keep the Indians from pulling out the last second win.

The confidence-building win sends the now 1-1 Gladiators on the road twice more this week, as they head to Buffalo Gap Friday and to Waynesboro Saturday. Both of those look like winnable games on paper and Coach Coffey would like nothing better than to come to practice next Monday with a 3-1 record in the books.

The Indians won the JV game tonight 32-21, and while the boys were doing their thing, the ladies were busy down at Riverheads, where they too split their games, with the Junior Gladiators winning the JV game before the Fort Ladies took center stage and handed Riverheads its first loss of the season.
 
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