By GARY DOVE
for the Daily Telegraph
WELCH — Monday evening’s Class AA sectional game at the Castle was a fan’s delight through three quarters.
Mount View’s host Lady Golden Knights and the River View Lady Raiders were tied at 35 after the initial 24 minutes of play, with four lead changes and five ties, including the 35-all deadlock, highlighting the competitive play between the two Views.
River View scored the first eight points of the final frame and 12 of the initial 14 to take a 51-43 win and advance to tonight’s semi-final against PikeView at Princeton Senior High School at 6 p.m.
Sophomore Katie Dobbs started the deciding fourth with a put back, followed by a nifty Kiersten Roberts drive from the left side before scooping a layup.
Senior Kiersten Dority, who took game scoring honors with 18 points, scored on a Dobbs assist and sophomore Paige Cooper added a stick back for the 8-0 run.
Lady Knight point guard Tamia Joyce briefly interrupted the string with a bucket before Dobbs added another offensive rebound goal and Roberts scored off a steal to stretch the Lady Raider advantage to 47-37 midway through the fourth.
Mount View put together one final run, of six points, to close the gap to 47-43 with just over a minute showing, before River View sealed the win with four foul down the stretch.
Joyce started that six point streak with a charity toss, followed by Keisha Johnson’s deuce. Sophomore Kaitlyn Gillespie added a free throw before Joyce finished the run with a jumper from the front.
When asked about the difference in the game, Lady Raider head coach Gehrig Justice simply stated, “We stopped them from shooting threes. The first two games (against the Lady Knights) Lash killed us, the other girls killed us…We played good man-to-man defense (tonight) and stopped them from shooting threes.”
On the evening, the Lady Knights only made one from beyond the arc.
Mount View played without head coach Harold Smith, who was home with back problems and unable to attend the game.
Golden Knights boys’ assistant Kenny Brown joined assistant girls’ coach Annalyn Pike on the Mount View bench to guide the Lady Knights.
River View received an emotional lift with three minutes remaining in the opening half when assistant coach Jerry Dobbs came into the gym on his trip home from CAMC after having triple bypass surgery there last Wednesday.
At first, Dobbs sat at the Lady Raider bench in a wheel chair, but gave that seat up for one along the bench, where he helped coach the remainder of the way.
Dority, who scored the initial eight Lady Raider points of the game, paced the win with 18 points, followed by Roberts’ 13, including seven in the deciding fourth.
Seniors Joyce and Johnson tossed in 14 points apiece for the Mount View quintet, who finish the campaign 10-7.
River View, now 15-7, will face PikeView this evening at Princeton at 6, with Bluefield and James Monroe squaring off in the other sectional semifinal following the first contest.
Tonight’s winners will play one another Thursday evening, also at Princeton.

At The Castle
RIVER VIEW
Kiersten Roberts 4 5-7 13, Paige Cooper 3 0-0 7, Kiersten Dority 8 1-3 18, Rebekah Christian 0 2-2 2, Lindsay Meade 1 3-3 5, Katie Dobbs 3 0-2 6. Totals 19 11-17 51.
MOUNT VIEW
Tamia Joyce 6 1-2 14, Keisha Johnson 6 2-3 14, Destiny Robertson 2 4-4 8, Kaitlyn Gillespie 3 1-2 7. Totals 17 8-11 43.
River View 11 15 9 16 — 51
Mount View 9 10 16 8 — 43
3-point goals: RV: 2 (Cooper 1, Dority 1); MV: 1 (Joyce). Fouled out: Joyce (MV).