After tonight, I think I have a clearer handle on why East Rock, Luray and Page are all beating up on each other this year. I say that because my Gladiators have traveled to all three of those home courts in the last two weeks, and if you saw one of those games, you saw them all. Luray and East Rock must be especially close to one another since RHS lost to Luray by 58-41 and tonight's score was only one point different.
All three home teams had the advantage over RHS in quickness, depth, and size, but to the Gladiators' credit, they never let any of the games get completely out of control and stayed competitive throughout all three contests.
Tonight's game started with a Graham Cash driving lay-up to give Riverheads its only lead of the game. The Eagles then went to work, especially inside, as they scored the next 11 points to take early control. They went on to lead 19-6 after one.
Riverheads battled back, cutting the lead to eight at 26-18, but then in what might have been the key stretch of the game, the Eagles scored the final 10 points of the quarter to take their biggest lead of the night into the locker room at 36-18.
Riverheads dropped in a triple, one of five the Gladiators hit on the night, to close to within 36-21 and the rest of the third quarter the lead fluctuated between 14 and 18. However, another trey by the Big Red closed it to 45-33 at the end of three and set the stage for a mini-rally by the Gladiators.
They kept pushing and cut the lead down to 9 on two or three occasions. For the last Big Red hurrah, Zach Roberts was fouled while successfully connecting on a deep triple that made the score 48-39. A four-point play would have cut it to eight with still 3-4 minutes left and could have made the finale interesting.
Unfortunately he missed that foul shot and that seemed to take the wind out of the Gladiator sails as East Rock outscored them 9-2 from that point to account for the final margin.
So the more talented team won but the underdog Big Red gave their all and that has to be all Coach Coffey can ask of them. Roberts was the only RHS player in double digits tonight with 15, but Brett Hostetler came off the bench with another good effort and finished with 8. I don't have any East Rock scoring but they appeared to have a pretty balanced attack.
Next up for Riverheads is Wilson, which will visit RHS on Friday. The Gladiators won that first match-up 51-37 and each team will need the win to maintain their Conference 36 standing. Wilson is currently number two, with RHS right behind, nursing a small lead over number four seed R E Lee.
Tonight's JV game was a tightly-contested affair in which neither team ever led by more than five points. Riverheads' Drew Bond sank two three-pointers in the fourth quarter, the latter giving the Big Red a 27-25 lead with under two minutes left. But ERHS scored the final six points of the game to snatch a 31-27 win. Tonight's referees were not as bad as the pair we had last night up at Page, but these two were not exactly ACC-caliber either, and had fans from both sides up in arms on more than one occasion.
All three home teams had the advantage over RHS in quickness, depth, and size, but to the Gladiators' credit, they never let any of the games get completely out of control and stayed competitive throughout all three contests.
Tonight's game started with a Graham Cash driving lay-up to give Riverheads its only lead of the game. The Eagles then went to work, especially inside, as they scored the next 11 points to take early control. They went on to lead 19-6 after one.
Riverheads battled back, cutting the lead to eight at 26-18, but then in what might have been the key stretch of the game, the Eagles scored the final 10 points of the quarter to take their biggest lead of the night into the locker room at 36-18.
Riverheads dropped in a triple, one of five the Gladiators hit on the night, to close to within 36-21 and the rest of the third quarter the lead fluctuated between 14 and 18. However, another trey by the Big Red closed it to 45-33 at the end of three and set the stage for a mini-rally by the Gladiators.
They kept pushing and cut the lead down to 9 on two or three occasions. For the last Big Red hurrah, Zach Roberts was fouled while successfully connecting on a deep triple that made the score 48-39. A four-point play would have cut it to eight with still 3-4 minutes left and could have made the finale interesting.
Unfortunately he missed that foul shot and that seemed to take the wind out of the Gladiator sails as East Rock outscored them 9-2 from that point to account for the final margin.
So the more talented team won but the underdog Big Red gave their all and that has to be all Coach Coffey can ask of them. Roberts was the only RHS player in double digits tonight with 15, but Brett Hostetler came off the bench with another good effort and finished with 8. I don't have any East Rock scoring but they appeared to have a pretty balanced attack.
Next up for Riverheads is Wilson, which will visit RHS on Friday. The Gladiators won that first match-up 51-37 and each team will need the win to maintain their Conference 36 standing. Wilson is currently number two, with RHS right behind, nursing a small lead over number four seed R E Lee.
Tonight's JV game was a tightly-contested affair in which neither team ever led by more than five points. Riverheads' Drew Bond sank two three-pointers in the fourth quarter, the latter giving the Big Red a 27-25 lead with under two minutes left. But ERHS scored the final six points of the game to snatch a 31-27 win. Tonight's referees were not as bad as the pair we had last night up at Page, but these two were not exactly ACC-caliber either, and had fans from both sides up in arms on more than one occasion.
