By GEORGE THWAITES
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
TAZEWELL, Va. — The Tazewell boys basketball team didn’t miraculously knock off Graham in Thursday’s Conference 39 clash at Tazewell Middle School. But the Bulldogs didn’t just roll over and play dead.
G-Men star guard Roman Workman fired up 16 points and made contributions all over the scoresheet and Graham picked up a 61-39 win against it’s nearest county rival.
Graham head coach Glynn Carlock credited coach Tom Rife with making progress with the troubled Bulldogs in his first season at Tazewell.
“I told our players before the game that this would not be the same kind of Tazewell team that we’ve faced the last few years,” said Graham head coach Glynn Carlock, Jr., whose squad led 12-9 after the first quarter and took a 26-21 lead into intermission.
“I knew they were going to play extremely hard and I knew that (Rife) was going to have them in the right places. And he did. It was not an easy half of basketball in that first half, because they outplayed us,” he said.
Workman had six rebounds, five steals and six assists for the G-Men (6-1), who had 11 steals as a team. Graham scored its first nine points on the free throw line, getting its first field goal on a Garrett Dalton stick-back with 2:24 remaining in the first quarter.
Workman scored his first bucket from the field, slipping a leaner off the glass with 1:22 on the clock in the first.
“We had a good game plan. Coach had us in position to win the game, we just started out a little slow. Then we picked up the effort in the second half,” said Workman.
Thomas Clarke scored 15 for the G-Men, hitting five from the field and going 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. Cameron Allen hit a trio of 3-pointers, finishing with nine points.
“Roman’s had a good week so far but we’ve had to have him because of all of our injuries,” said Graham, who is presently minus Nick Morgan and point guard Chandler Cooper due to injuries. “Roman and Thomas are our offensive threats right now and they both came through tonight. I thought that we had a tremendous effort from our bench ... guys who came in and gave us a huge lift,” he said.
Hunter Mullins and Alex Vanhoozer scored nine points apiece for the Bulldogs, who played scrappy defense and executed some convincing offensive possessions, especially in the first half.
“We’ve seen improvement in the last week or two, but it’s been incremental. It hasn’t been lightning in a bottle,” said Rife, who took over a squad that went winless last season. “But our kids are working hard, they’re buying in, and we’re staying with it.”
The Graham boys play at home tonight for the first time since Dec. 21, facing Bland County in the nightcap of a quad at Graham Middle School. The Bulldogs host Virginia High tonight.

At Tazewell Middle School
GRAHAM (6-1)
Roman Workman 6 4-10 16, Jones 1 0-0 2, Thomas Clarke 5 5-5 15, Curto 3 0-0 6, Allen 3 0-0 9, Cole 0 0-0 0, Martin 2 2-4 6, Shoemaker 0 1-2 1, Miller 0 2-2 2, Dalton 2 0-0 4. Totals 22 14-23 61.
TAZEWELL (1-10)
Griffith 1 2-2 4, Mullins 2 5-6 9, Murray 0 0-0 0, P. Vanhoozer 0 0-0 0, Kitts 2 1-2 6, A. Vanhoozer 3 1-5 9, Crouse 1 1-2 3, Samaniego 2 0-0 4, Watson 2 0-2 5. Totals , 13 10-19 39.
Graham......................13 13 20 15 — 61
Tazewell.......................9 12 10 8 — 39
3-point goals: Graham 3 (Allen 3), Tazewell 3 (Griffith, Kitts, Watson)