It was an electric atmosphere at Riverheads tonight, as you would expect with two long-time county rivals going at it with a berth in the state tournament on the line. The two fan bases were at full throat volume as the two teams traded scoring spurts until the visiting Bison got the final and biggest one to pull out the hard-fought win. They will now face the Altavista/Rapp Co winner for the Region B crown on Friday.
Riverheads had won both meetings over BG this season and for the first half of the game it looked as if a threepeat was in store. A tightly-contested first quarter that featured two triples by each team, including a banked one for RHS, saw the home team take a 17-15 lead. The Gladiators then went on a 7-0 spurt to start the second period to take their largest lead to that point at 24-15. But the Lady Bison put up a mini-run of their own to close it to 24-20 before a late score by RHS made it 27-20 at the break.
The Gladiators then padded their lead early in the third and on a fast-break lay-up after a steal, they had their first double-digit advantage at 35-25. Instead of folding, the Bison stepped up the pressure, began crashing the boards relentlessly, especially on the offensive end, and blitzed the Gladiators with a 13-0 spurt to grab a 38-35 advantage. Riverheads came back one last time to lead 39-38 but yet another 6-0 Bison surge gave them the lead for good.
They were using their height advantage so efficiently to control the rebounding that many of their second half points came on second, third and sometimes fourth chance opportunities. Meanwhile RHS was getting shots but they were just not falling.
However, things did get interesting down the stretch. With the Gap clinging to a 49-45 lead, Riverheads canned a triple from the left corner to cut it to a single point at 49-48. I don't remember the exact time but it was at least a minute and a half I think, and even though each team had their chances in the final seconds, that turned out to be the final tally.
After a lot of scrambles for loose balls and a number of missed shots, the Gladiators sent BG to the line with roughly 8 seconds left and the Bison shooter missed both to give Riverheads one last shot to pull out the win. They pushed the ball quickly down court but lost control in traffic and never really got off a shot as the Bison held on to win.
Bison fans are now in an enviable position for the rest of this week. With this win, the girls will play Friday and more importantly, win or lose will advance to the state tournament. Meanwhile the boys will be at home tomorrow night to face William Campbell for that same right to advance to state play.
If things fall into place for the Black and Gold, they could be watching both their teams in action for quite a few more evenings before all is said and done. For the sake of county and district pride, we should all wish them well and hope that one or both teams bring home some hardware.
As for Riverheads, a disappointing loss for sure but they had an overall winning record and with a very good JV team ready to step up, the chances are pretty good that RHS will still be playing ball about this same time next year.
Riverheads had won both meetings over BG this season and for the first half of the game it looked as if a threepeat was in store. A tightly-contested first quarter that featured two triples by each team, including a banked one for RHS, saw the home team take a 17-15 lead. The Gladiators then went on a 7-0 spurt to start the second period to take their largest lead to that point at 24-15. But the Lady Bison put up a mini-run of their own to close it to 24-20 before a late score by RHS made it 27-20 at the break.
The Gladiators then padded their lead early in the third and on a fast-break lay-up after a steal, they had their first double-digit advantage at 35-25. Instead of folding, the Bison stepped up the pressure, began crashing the boards relentlessly, especially on the offensive end, and blitzed the Gladiators with a 13-0 spurt to grab a 38-35 advantage. Riverheads came back one last time to lead 39-38 but yet another 6-0 Bison surge gave them the lead for good.
They were using their height advantage so efficiently to control the rebounding that many of their second half points came on second, third and sometimes fourth chance opportunities. Meanwhile RHS was getting shots but they were just not falling.
However, things did get interesting down the stretch. With the Gap clinging to a 49-45 lead, Riverheads canned a triple from the left corner to cut it to a single point at 49-48. I don't remember the exact time but it was at least a minute and a half I think, and even though each team had their chances in the final seconds, that turned out to be the final tally.
After a lot of scrambles for loose balls and a number of missed shots, the Gladiators sent BG to the line with roughly 8 seconds left and the Bison shooter missed both to give Riverheads one last shot to pull out the win. They pushed the ball quickly down court but lost control in traffic and never really got off a shot as the Bison held on to win.
Bison fans are now in an enviable position for the rest of this week. With this win, the girls will play Friday and more importantly, win or lose will advance to the state tournament. Meanwhile the boys will be at home tomorrow night to face William Campbell for that same right to advance to state play.
If things fall into place for the Black and Gold, they could be watching both their teams in action for quite a few more evenings before all is said and done. For the sake of county and district pride, we should all wish them well and hope that one or both teams bring home some hardware.
As for Riverheads, a disappointing loss for sure but they had an overall winning record and with a very good JV team ready to step up, the chances are pretty good that RHS will still be playing ball about this same time next year.
