Well it has been 10 months since we had any organized high school sports and the atmosphere was certainly different tonight, but having watched my Gladiators in action from right here at my computer screen as opposed to being in the bleachers, I will still try to deliver a fairly coherent report. In a nutshell the Big Red was a pleasant surprise tonight as they held their own against the Staunton Storm, enjoying a lead for periods of time in the third and fourth quarters before the visitors pulled out a narrow 50-47 win.
I will first offer an apology to our visitors because I made no attempt to notice any of their names or pay any attention to who their top playmakers may have been. That is because I wanted to concentrate on following my Gladiators, learning how to recognize them online and trying to keep up with who was in the game at any given time. The only comment I will make about Staunton is to say that they did not appear to have either the size or quickness that we have seen in the past. In fact, and maybe this was because I was so separated from the action, but the overall intensity of the play was lacking tonight. If there were fierce battles on the boards or any kind of chippy play or bad sportsmanship on the part of either team, it did not come across on the streaming. It looked like a very clean game with far fewer turnovers than you would expect from a season opener.
Staunton took advantage of the new rule and scored on its opening possession, but Ryan Farris took the early scoring lead for RHS and tied it on a nice baseline drive. Staunton then moved out to about a five point advantage that they held for the rest of the half. Farris hit a couple more buckets for the Pride, D'ante Gray had five quick points, and Landon Lightner dropped one in from close.
Missing in the early going was Big Red sharpshooter Adam Painter, who will be expected to carry a lot of the scoring load for Riverheads this year. He left his first few shots short of the rim, perhaps due to nerves, but came on strong in the second half and led the Gladiator scoring with an unofficial 20 by my count. Farris finished with 13.
RHS came out of the gate strong to open the second half and took its first lead of the game at 32-31. The lead seesawed a bit from there with the home team ahead 37-36 entering the final stanza. Staunton regained the lead for good midway through the period and for a while, it looked as if they might pull out to a more substantial victory. But Riverheads made one final push and things got a little interesting when Painter dribbled across the midcourt line and let loose with his sixth triple of the night from just inside half court that banked in to close the gap to the 50-47 final. The Gladiators took one final timeout as near as I could tell but was not able to get a stop to get the ball back.
Why do I say "as near as I could tell" you might ask. Well that is because of the streaming I was getting, so I wanted to bring that up for discussion and compare it to what the rest of you are seeing around the state. In my case, I had started out earlier in the evening, trying to watch the RHS JV game, which Staunton won easily by the way. That turned out to be completely unwatchable because it kept freezing for long periods of time and no matter how many times I logged off and back on, I was never allowed to see any live JV action and just had to give up on that game.
So I was expecting the worst for the varsity game. But for the most part it was a night and day difference and I was OK with the quality. I could tell who was who, and as I tried to keep score, as I always did in the bleachers, it was very helpful to be able to hear our fine PA announcer, our very own J H Wright, confirming each basket for me.
Everything was hunky dorey up until about the 2:30 mark of the fourth quarter. At that point, my screen froze up about every five seconds, making it very tough to follow the flow of the game. I later learned from a fellow fan that he enjoyed decent quality also but did not experience any freeze up until the 23 second mark.
Therefore I would be curious to know if any of you got to see this game, or have seen any other game from start to finish without experiencing any technical difficulties. I realize this will be a new thing for all of us and growing pains are to be expected, but I would like to think we will all be able to see our games without such issues as much as modern technology will allow.
It may have been a sweep for the Storm tonight but I certainly assume that Coach Coffey was as pleased as I was with the Big Red effort. I think he had hit the nail on the head with a media comment earlier this week in which he said that he thought his team would be ready because this year they had enjoyed a more traditional practice time, as opposed to the shortened one that generally results from an extended football season. That appeared to be the case tonight based on the level of poise that his charges demonstrated.
While the Storm was enjoying its trip to Greenville, the Lady Gladiators evened things out with a pair of double digit wins in Staunton. The JVs had topped 55 points already by the time I cut back for our varsity game and the varsity team, which has high hopes this year, rolled over the Storm 54-40.
Next up the Gladiators will battle Fort Defiance with the boys hitting the road Tuesday night and the girls entertaining the Lady Indians at home.
I will first offer an apology to our visitors because I made no attempt to notice any of their names or pay any attention to who their top playmakers may have been. That is because I wanted to concentrate on following my Gladiators, learning how to recognize them online and trying to keep up with who was in the game at any given time. The only comment I will make about Staunton is to say that they did not appear to have either the size or quickness that we have seen in the past. In fact, and maybe this was because I was so separated from the action, but the overall intensity of the play was lacking tonight. If there were fierce battles on the boards or any kind of chippy play or bad sportsmanship on the part of either team, it did not come across on the streaming. It looked like a very clean game with far fewer turnovers than you would expect from a season opener.
Staunton took advantage of the new rule and scored on its opening possession, but Ryan Farris took the early scoring lead for RHS and tied it on a nice baseline drive. Staunton then moved out to about a five point advantage that they held for the rest of the half. Farris hit a couple more buckets for the Pride, D'ante Gray had five quick points, and Landon Lightner dropped one in from close.
Missing in the early going was Big Red sharpshooter Adam Painter, who will be expected to carry a lot of the scoring load for Riverheads this year. He left his first few shots short of the rim, perhaps due to nerves, but came on strong in the second half and led the Gladiator scoring with an unofficial 20 by my count. Farris finished with 13.
RHS came out of the gate strong to open the second half and took its first lead of the game at 32-31. The lead seesawed a bit from there with the home team ahead 37-36 entering the final stanza. Staunton regained the lead for good midway through the period and for a while, it looked as if they might pull out to a more substantial victory. But Riverheads made one final push and things got a little interesting when Painter dribbled across the midcourt line and let loose with his sixth triple of the night from just inside half court that banked in to close the gap to the 50-47 final. The Gladiators took one final timeout as near as I could tell but was not able to get a stop to get the ball back.
Why do I say "as near as I could tell" you might ask. Well that is because of the streaming I was getting, so I wanted to bring that up for discussion and compare it to what the rest of you are seeing around the state. In my case, I had started out earlier in the evening, trying to watch the RHS JV game, which Staunton won easily by the way. That turned out to be completely unwatchable because it kept freezing for long periods of time and no matter how many times I logged off and back on, I was never allowed to see any live JV action and just had to give up on that game.
So I was expecting the worst for the varsity game. But for the most part it was a night and day difference and I was OK with the quality. I could tell who was who, and as I tried to keep score, as I always did in the bleachers, it was very helpful to be able to hear our fine PA announcer, our very own J H Wright, confirming each basket for me.
Everything was hunky dorey up until about the 2:30 mark of the fourth quarter. At that point, my screen froze up about every five seconds, making it very tough to follow the flow of the game. I later learned from a fellow fan that he enjoyed decent quality also but did not experience any freeze up until the 23 second mark.
Therefore I would be curious to know if any of you got to see this game, or have seen any other game from start to finish without experiencing any technical difficulties. I realize this will be a new thing for all of us and growing pains are to be expected, but I would like to think we will all be able to see our games without such issues as much as modern technology will allow.
It may have been a sweep for the Storm tonight but I certainly assume that Coach Coffey was as pleased as I was with the Big Red effort. I think he had hit the nail on the head with a media comment earlier this week in which he said that he thought his team would be ready because this year they had enjoyed a more traditional practice time, as opposed to the shortened one that generally results from an extended football season. That appeared to be the case tonight based on the level of poise that his charges demonstrated.
While the Storm was enjoying its trip to Greenville, the Lady Gladiators evened things out with a pair of double digit wins in Staunton. The JVs had topped 55 points already by the time I cut back for our varsity game and the varsity team, which has high hopes this year, rolled over the Storm 54-40.
Next up the Gladiators will battle Fort Defiance with the boys hitting the road Tuesday night and the girls entertaining the Lady Indians at home.
