The Riverheads girls appear to be peaking at the right time as they buried the visiting Lady Dukes tonight and earned themselves a trip to Surry for Friday's Region B title game, but more importantly, they now know they will be in the state tournament win or lose Friday.
There were two keys to the win tonight. First of all, the Gladiators pressed the Dukes for most of the first half, resulting in quite a few turnovers leading to easy buckets. On many occasions the Dukes did not even cross midcourt. Dayton Moore was especially quick on defense, which led to the fiery sophomore scoring 10 first-half points.
But the real "star" of the show for the Big Red was junior center Berkeley Tyree. Although Cumberland had its own inside player that was almost exactly the same build, there was no comparison in the talent level. Tyree led all scorers with 23, and to show how dominant she was inside, an astonishing 15 of those points came from the charity stripe, where she only missed twice all night.
The closest the Dukes came was a 5-3 deficit early in the game. From there the Gladiator press took over and stretched the lead to 21-5 at the end of one and 33-8 by halftime. The Dukes did have a respectable third quarter in which they connected from behind the arc three times, but of course they were much too far behind to mount a serious threat.
Meanwhile it was an "everybody plays" night for Riverheads as 11 girls dented the scoring column. By far the most crowd-pleasing bucket of the game was the very last one scored by the Gladiators. At the midway point of the fourth quarter, the student section started chanting for their sentimental favorite Kara-Faith Wright, and Coach Woods obliged and put her in the game for the final few minutes. Much to the fans' delight, she banked in the final hoop of the evening with about five seconds left in the contest.
The Gladiators just might be able to give Surry a run for its money if they can keep up this intensity. Although the Lady Cougars have run up some incredible numbers this year, including pitching two unbelievable shut-outs, they did not exactly run away and hide from Altavista tonight. I think that final was something like 37-16. So even though Riverheads will have to travel Friday, I think they will put up a fight.
Regardless of where they finish this season, the Gladiators will be right back in the thick of things next year, considering that almost the entire team will return. Only two of tonight's 63 points were scored by an outgoing senior, a stat that likely has Coach Woods licking his chops already.
The Big Red boys take center stage tomorrow night as they will try to earn their own state berth when Carver Academy comes calling. Carver knocked off the Gladiators in the Region B final last year but in 2018, Riverheads hosted and won a semi-final game. So tomorrow's game will be the rubber match in the series between the two. The winner of that game will then play the Sussex/Cumberland winner on Saturday for the regional title and the right to host a state quarter-final.
There were two keys to the win tonight. First of all, the Gladiators pressed the Dukes for most of the first half, resulting in quite a few turnovers leading to easy buckets. On many occasions the Dukes did not even cross midcourt. Dayton Moore was especially quick on defense, which led to the fiery sophomore scoring 10 first-half points.
But the real "star" of the show for the Big Red was junior center Berkeley Tyree. Although Cumberland had its own inside player that was almost exactly the same build, there was no comparison in the talent level. Tyree led all scorers with 23, and to show how dominant she was inside, an astonishing 15 of those points came from the charity stripe, where she only missed twice all night.
The closest the Dukes came was a 5-3 deficit early in the game. From there the Gladiator press took over and stretched the lead to 21-5 at the end of one and 33-8 by halftime. The Dukes did have a respectable third quarter in which they connected from behind the arc three times, but of course they were much too far behind to mount a serious threat.
Meanwhile it was an "everybody plays" night for Riverheads as 11 girls dented the scoring column. By far the most crowd-pleasing bucket of the game was the very last one scored by the Gladiators. At the midway point of the fourth quarter, the student section started chanting for their sentimental favorite Kara-Faith Wright, and Coach Woods obliged and put her in the game for the final few minutes. Much to the fans' delight, she banked in the final hoop of the evening with about five seconds left in the contest.
The Gladiators just might be able to give Surry a run for its money if they can keep up this intensity. Although the Lady Cougars have run up some incredible numbers this year, including pitching two unbelievable shut-outs, they did not exactly run away and hide from Altavista tonight. I think that final was something like 37-16. So even though Riverheads will have to travel Friday, I think they will put up a fight.
Regardless of where they finish this season, the Gladiators will be right back in the thick of things next year, considering that almost the entire team will return. Only two of tonight's 63 points were scored by an outgoing senior, a stat that likely has Coach Woods licking his chops already.
The Big Red boys take center stage tomorrow night as they will try to earn their own state berth when Carver Academy comes calling. Carver knocked off the Gladiators in the Region B final last year but in 2018, Riverheads hosted and won a semi-final game. So tomorrow's game will be the rubber match in the series between the two. The winner of that game will then play the Sussex/Cumberland winner on Saturday for the regional title and the right to host a state quarter-final.
