The Gladiators raised their season record to 3-2 tonight with a solid 55-42 win over neighborhood rival Stuarts Draft. A big second quarter that featured some scoring from an unexpected source gave the Big Red a double-digit halftime lead and they coasted to the victory, leading by as many as 19 down the stretch.
Each team started slowly in the first quarter and swapped the lead a few times with Riverheads clinging to a 10-9 advantage at the first horn. But a 19-9 second quarter margin, sparked by 9 points from Tye Morris, put the Gladiators ahead to stay. The junior forward was expected to give Coach Coffey some much-needed rebounding, but scoring in double figures was icing on the cake tonight, and his 11 points included hitting a corner three-pointer, another nice addition we have seen to his game.
In addition to Morris' points in the second quarter, the usual suspects, guards Adam Painter and Ryan Farris, were also starting to warm up, although each of them saved his major production for the second half, finishing with 19 and 16 points respectively, after combining for 45 at Waynesboro Saturday night.
As for the Cougars, they hustled as best they could, but they are clearly missing the scoring and leadership of senior Jo'el Howard, who is currently sidelined with an injury. After defeating Wilson in their season opener with him on the court, the Cougars have now dropped four in a row, losing to Staunton as well as the other three county teams.
Since I have been keeping you guys posted on the quality of the NFHS live streaming, I will mention that tonight's game was better than some but the freezing was still both frequent and annoying. For example, in the first half, we missed six points for RHS, including what appeared to be a nice over-the-head circus lay-up by "somebody." Then in the second half, at one point, Painter hit one of his three triples on the night, but all we saw or heard at the time was "for threeeeee!" from our fine PA announcer. As much as we appreciate having the streaming under current conditions, I do hope they can iron out these bugs.
The Riverheads JV boys swung back into action tonight after not playing against either Buffalo Gap or Waynesboro last week. They fell behind the Cougar Cubs early but made a nice effort to get back in the game before SD held on to win 40-25.
Meanwhile over at Stuarts Draft, the Lady Gladiators were taking care of business in a big way. The unbeaten Riverheads JVs romped to an easy win, and when I switched over at the end of the boys varsity game, I was pleasantly shocked to see RHS leading the Lady Cougars by more than 30 on their own floor with less than two minutes to go. So if you do the math, the Big Red took three out of four tonight from their arch-rivals.
As mentioned in the subject line, it is a busy week for RHS as they will host Waynesboro Thursday night and Wilson on Friday. That should be a big one as the Hornets have started to make waves and possibly stamp themselves as the team to beat in the Shenandoah.
Stuarts Draft has very little time to process tonight's loss as they will host Alleghany County Wednesday night. Sometimes jumping right back out there and playing the next game can be the best medicine after a loss so we wish the Cougars the best of luck against their non-district visitors. Riverheads will be keeping an eye on that one also since the Mountaineers are on their schedule as well this season.
Each team started slowly in the first quarter and swapped the lead a few times with Riverheads clinging to a 10-9 advantage at the first horn. But a 19-9 second quarter margin, sparked by 9 points from Tye Morris, put the Gladiators ahead to stay. The junior forward was expected to give Coach Coffey some much-needed rebounding, but scoring in double figures was icing on the cake tonight, and his 11 points included hitting a corner three-pointer, another nice addition we have seen to his game.
In addition to Morris' points in the second quarter, the usual suspects, guards Adam Painter and Ryan Farris, were also starting to warm up, although each of them saved his major production for the second half, finishing with 19 and 16 points respectively, after combining for 45 at Waynesboro Saturday night.
As for the Cougars, they hustled as best they could, but they are clearly missing the scoring and leadership of senior Jo'el Howard, who is currently sidelined with an injury. After defeating Wilson in their season opener with him on the court, the Cougars have now dropped four in a row, losing to Staunton as well as the other three county teams.
Since I have been keeping you guys posted on the quality of the NFHS live streaming, I will mention that tonight's game was better than some but the freezing was still both frequent and annoying. For example, in the first half, we missed six points for RHS, including what appeared to be a nice over-the-head circus lay-up by "somebody." Then in the second half, at one point, Painter hit one of his three triples on the night, but all we saw or heard at the time was "for threeeeee!" from our fine PA announcer. As much as we appreciate having the streaming under current conditions, I do hope they can iron out these bugs.
The Riverheads JV boys swung back into action tonight after not playing against either Buffalo Gap or Waynesboro last week. They fell behind the Cougar Cubs early but made a nice effort to get back in the game before SD held on to win 40-25.
Meanwhile over at Stuarts Draft, the Lady Gladiators were taking care of business in a big way. The unbeaten Riverheads JVs romped to an easy win, and when I switched over at the end of the boys varsity game, I was pleasantly shocked to see RHS leading the Lady Cougars by more than 30 on their own floor with less than two minutes to go. So if you do the math, the Big Red took three out of four tonight from their arch-rivals.
As mentioned in the subject line, it is a busy week for RHS as they will host Waynesboro Thursday night and Wilson on Friday. That should be a big one as the Hornets have started to make waves and possibly stamp themselves as the team to beat in the Shenandoah.
Stuarts Draft has very little time to process tonight's loss as they will host Alleghany County Wednesday night. Sometimes jumping right back out there and playing the next game can be the best medicine after a loss so we wish the Cougars the best of luck against their non-district visitors. Riverheads will be keeping an eye on that one also since the Mountaineers are on their schedule as well this season.
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