For the most part it was a good day to be a Gladiator as the visitors won the first three games at Wilson's quadruple header, before the Hornets saved the day for their home fans with a win in the boys varsity game. I am afraid I won't be able to provide my usual amount of detail because I missed most of the action but here are at least the headlines........
In the 2:00 opener, the Riverheads boys JV team went on an 11-0 spurt straddling the first and second quarters and held on the rest of the way to knock off Wilson 45-35. The Big Red was especially proficient at the foul line down the stretch and a pair of technicals late in the game against the home team did not help their cause.
I then intentionally missed both girls games due to my DVRing of the Virginia bowl game (Wahoo Wa!) and the two national semi-finals, all of which explains why I am filing this report late even by my standards. But when I got back to Wilson I was told that Riverheads had won both of those. I did not get a score for either one and they have not yet been posted on the Shenandoah District website. The Gladiator JVs are now 9-0 on the season and I believe tonight's win (which I was told was in the 10-12 point range) gives the varsity girls a 5-4 record.
The bad news for me and the reason I cannot give you a full report is that the action moved faster than expected so when I got back to the gym, assuming I was getting there in plenty of time, the varsity boys game was instead late in the first quarter. I walked in on a 9-9 tie, and saw a Drew Bond stickback and a pair of Zach Adams foul shots move RHS out in front 13-9. But from that point on, it was pretty much all Wilson.
The Hornets scored first to open the second quarter and soon led by 8. Riverheads then closed out the half on a Forrest Shuey bucket, indicating that the ankle he tweaked at PM last night must be OK.
Wilson then opened the second half with a pair of triples and soon built a double digit lead. Riverheads was able to trim it down to 35-29 late in the quarter but could not get any closer and the Hornets slowly pulled away for a 52-33 win.
The refs called this one very tightly and things got a little chippy down the stretch, including one odd sequence in which a Wilson player got a technical for protesting a call and just seconds later a Riverheads player got one for reacting to the first one. The officials huddled and decided to pick up the game where it left off.
So although it was great for the Big Red to pick up the three wins, it was not the best of weekends for the varsity boys as they are now 3-3 on the season. I think they are suffering through what they do every year..........the football season means a delay to the start of the season and then when they do get to start playing, they have to play so many games in such quick succession that they don't have enough practice time in between games.
I would bet money that was a factor tonight as they simply had no time to even think about or recover from last night's dogfight in Buena Vista, but yet they had to be ready to play tonight. In most years in the past, they have been able to adapt to this frantic pace and find their groove. Hopefully they can get back on track Wednesday night when winless Fort Defiance pays a visit.
Since I missed part of the game, I have no scoring to report but I did notice that the Gladiators made a special effort tonight to establish newcomer Honor Robinson as a presence in the post and he responded nicely. I remember at least eight points so he may very well have been the leading scorer and posted his first double-figure game as a Gladiator. I am hoping the local paper(s) will have a box score for us.
In the 2:00 opener, the Riverheads boys JV team went on an 11-0 spurt straddling the first and second quarters and held on the rest of the way to knock off Wilson 45-35. The Big Red was especially proficient at the foul line down the stretch and a pair of technicals late in the game against the home team did not help their cause.
I then intentionally missed both girls games due to my DVRing of the Virginia bowl game (Wahoo Wa!) and the two national semi-finals, all of which explains why I am filing this report late even by my standards. But when I got back to Wilson I was told that Riverheads had won both of those. I did not get a score for either one and they have not yet been posted on the Shenandoah District website. The Gladiator JVs are now 9-0 on the season and I believe tonight's win (which I was told was in the 10-12 point range) gives the varsity girls a 5-4 record.
The bad news for me and the reason I cannot give you a full report is that the action moved faster than expected so when I got back to the gym, assuming I was getting there in plenty of time, the varsity boys game was instead late in the first quarter. I walked in on a 9-9 tie, and saw a Drew Bond stickback and a pair of Zach Adams foul shots move RHS out in front 13-9. But from that point on, it was pretty much all Wilson.
The Hornets scored first to open the second quarter and soon led by 8. Riverheads then closed out the half on a Forrest Shuey bucket, indicating that the ankle he tweaked at PM last night must be OK.
Wilson then opened the second half with a pair of triples and soon built a double digit lead. Riverheads was able to trim it down to 35-29 late in the quarter but could not get any closer and the Hornets slowly pulled away for a 52-33 win.
The refs called this one very tightly and things got a little chippy down the stretch, including one odd sequence in which a Wilson player got a technical for protesting a call and just seconds later a Riverheads player got one for reacting to the first one. The officials huddled and decided to pick up the game where it left off.
So although it was great for the Big Red to pick up the three wins, it was not the best of weekends for the varsity boys as they are now 3-3 on the season. I think they are suffering through what they do every year..........the football season means a delay to the start of the season and then when they do get to start playing, they have to play so many games in such quick succession that they don't have enough practice time in between games.
I would bet money that was a factor tonight as they simply had no time to even think about or recover from last night's dogfight in Buena Vista, but yet they had to be ready to play tonight. In most years in the past, they have been able to adapt to this frantic pace and find their groove. Hopefully they can get back on track Wednesday night when winless Fort Defiance pays a visit.
Since I missed part of the game, I have no scoring to report but I did notice that the Gladiators made a special effort tonight to establish newcomer Honor Robinson as a presence in the post and he responded nicely. I remember at least eight points so he may very well have been the leading scorer and posted his first double-figure game as a Gladiator. I am hoping the local paper(s) will have a box score for us.
