Tonight's regular season finale in the Paul Hatcher gym had the potential to be an all-out massacre. The homestanding Storm was celebrating Senior Night, they were looking to finish a perfect 12-0 in the district, and the guests were the Riverheads Gladiators, a team they had already beaten 67-28 on the road and was headed for an 0-12 district mark.
Well somebody forgot to tell the Big Red that they were supposed to just roll over and let The Storm do whatever they wanted to, and for the first quarter and a half, the Gladiators looked like anything BUT the last place team in the district. Staunton eventually pulled away to win the game 86-67 but it was a far cry from the 30 point blowouts they have delivered to everyone in the district this season.
To put it in perspective, the Gladiators scored more in each half tonight (34, then 33) than they did in the entire game the first time around. The major difference was that the Big Red was much more focused and aggressive on offense tonight and challenged The Storm on just about every possession. Staunton's depth and quickness ultimately proved to be the difference as it apparently has in every game this season for them but Coach Weller has to be tickled red with the effort his troops gave in this final game and hopefully he and the team have already started discussing how next season can be so much better if they make the commitment to work toward it.
Tonight's game started out as a three-point clinic from both teams, as the first seven field goals were all from behind the arc. Jack Jones started the party off for Staunton, but Grady Campbell matched him. Two more triples followed for each team with Henley Dunlap and J P Crawford tying the score for the Big Red at 6-6 and 9-9. Another Staunton triple gave them the lead for good at 12-9 before RHS' Grayson Ward said "excuse me guys, but let's not forget that you can also score from in close" as he dropped one in to make it 12-11.
The Gladiators continued to counter-attack everything Staunton was hitting as the first quarter ended at 19-17. Midway through the second period, Dunlap hit a deep one and was fouled. He completed the rare four point play to keep the score close but soon thereafter, Staunton's tiny Joaqin Bell stroked identical transition triples from the top of the key to open up some breathing room as The Storm took a 48-34 lead into the locker room.
Both teams substituted liberally in the second half and although Staunton threatened that 30 point blowout, the Gladiators kept fighting and ultimately trimmed it down to the 19 point final margin. That might still seem like a huge victory to some readers, but when you consider the talent disparity and huge difference in experience between these teams (i.e. Staunton's seven seniors to none for Riverheads), the Big Red should be extremely proud of their effort tonight.
Dunlap and Crawford led RHS tonight with 18 and 17 respectively. Campbell had an excellent floor game, added a second triple and finished with 8 points. Jackson Brammer matched his eight, all coming in the second half, and four other Gladiators scored between two and five. One Big Red player, Holden Fitzgerald, left the game with a leg injury in the second quarter and never returned, but if you are going to get hurt in a game, I guess the final game of the season is the time to do it.
As for Staunton, they shuffled players in and out so much that I would not even hazard a guess as to their top scorer. Even the last guys off the bench dropped in three pointers as I would estimate that Staunton had between 12 and 15 of them tonight. There was some kind of celebration toward the end of the game when Staunton senior Levi Rodriguez dropped in a three. The crowd went wild and he was immediately mobbed by his teammates, but if it was anything such as a 1,000th career point, there was no formal announcement made.
What was announced is the fact that Staunton will advance later this week to play in the Region 3-C playoffs. They will of course not be the only Shenandoah team continuing its season as I suspect that at least four other teams will qualify for post-season play.
In other games tonight that may or may not impact that playoff picture, Buffalo Gap and Waynesboro had themselves another slow-paced affair, finally won by the Bison 32-29, and just as I suspected they might, those hard-to-figure Stuarts Draft Cougars fell at home once again, this time to Fort Defiance by a 67-65 count.
That leaves the Fort temporarily in second place behind Staunton as the only three-loss team. The Indians travel to Wilson Wednesday for a make-up date. If the Fort can take that one, they will finish in second and drop Wilson to fourth. A Wilson win will create a three-way tie at 8-4 but as mentioned before, the state rating scale determines playoff seeding.
Regardless of how many of our teams make it into the regional field, let's hope they can make us proud.
Well somebody forgot to tell the Big Red that they were supposed to just roll over and let The Storm do whatever they wanted to, and for the first quarter and a half, the Gladiators looked like anything BUT the last place team in the district. Staunton eventually pulled away to win the game 86-67 but it was a far cry from the 30 point blowouts they have delivered to everyone in the district this season.
To put it in perspective, the Gladiators scored more in each half tonight (34, then 33) than they did in the entire game the first time around. The major difference was that the Big Red was much more focused and aggressive on offense tonight and challenged The Storm on just about every possession. Staunton's depth and quickness ultimately proved to be the difference as it apparently has in every game this season for them but Coach Weller has to be tickled red with the effort his troops gave in this final game and hopefully he and the team have already started discussing how next season can be so much better if they make the commitment to work toward it.
Tonight's game started out as a three-point clinic from both teams, as the first seven field goals were all from behind the arc. Jack Jones started the party off for Staunton, but Grady Campbell matched him. Two more triples followed for each team with Henley Dunlap and J P Crawford tying the score for the Big Red at 6-6 and 9-9. Another Staunton triple gave them the lead for good at 12-9 before RHS' Grayson Ward said "excuse me guys, but let's not forget that you can also score from in close" as he dropped one in to make it 12-11.
The Gladiators continued to counter-attack everything Staunton was hitting as the first quarter ended at 19-17. Midway through the second period, Dunlap hit a deep one and was fouled. He completed the rare four point play to keep the score close but soon thereafter, Staunton's tiny Joaqin Bell stroked identical transition triples from the top of the key to open up some breathing room as The Storm took a 48-34 lead into the locker room.
Both teams substituted liberally in the second half and although Staunton threatened that 30 point blowout, the Gladiators kept fighting and ultimately trimmed it down to the 19 point final margin. That might still seem like a huge victory to some readers, but when you consider the talent disparity and huge difference in experience between these teams (i.e. Staunton's seven seniors to none for Riverheads), the Big Red should be extremely proud of their effort tonight.
Dunlap and Crawford led RHS tonight with 18 and 17 respectively. Campbell had an excellent floor game, added a second triple and finished with 8 points. Jackson Brammer matched his eight, all coming in the second half, and four other Gladiators scored between two and five. One Big Red player, Holden Fitzgerald, left the game with a leg injury in the second quarter and never returned, but if you are going to get hurt in a game, I guess the final game of the season is the time to do it.
As for Staunton, they shuffled players in and out so much that I would not even hazard a guess as to their top scorer. Even the last guys off the bench dropped in three pointers as I would estimate that Staunton had between 12 and 15 of them tonight. There was some kind of celebration toward the end of the game when Staunton senior Levi Rodriguez dropped in a three. The crowd went wild and he was immediately mobbed by his teammates, but if it was anything such as a 1,000th career point, there was no formal announcement made.
What was announced is the fact that Staunton will advance later this week to play in the Region 3-C playoffs. They will of course not be the only Shenandoah team continuing its season as I suspect that at least four other teams will qualify for post-season play.
In other games tonight that may or may not impact that playoff picture, Buffalo Gap and Waynesboro had themselves another slow-paced affair, finally won by the Bison 32-29, and just as I suspected they might, those hard-to-figure Stuarts Draft Cougars fell at home once again, this time to Fort Defiance by a 67-65 count.
That leaves the Fort temporarily in second place behind Staunton as the only three-loss team. The Indians travel to Wilson Wednesday for a make-up date. If the Fort can take that one, they will finish in second and drop Wilson to fourth. A Wilson win will create a three-way tie at 8-4 but as mentioned before, the state rating scale determines playoff seeding.
Regardless of how many of our teams make it into the regional field, let's hope they can make us proud.
