By GEORGE THWAITES
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, Va. — Had Graham not defeated Virginia High at home on Thursday night, the G-Men would probably be hurtling toward a rematch with county rival Richlands.
After an 82-51 rout of the Bearcats, however, Graham decided to call it a regular season.
Roman Workman scored 25 points, handed out four assists, grabbed five rebounds and nabbed five steals as he helped the G-Men wrap up the top seed to next week’s Southern Empire Conference (39) boys basketball tournament.
“They’re athletic, bigger, faster and stronger than us and it really showed tonight. More aggressive. We got beat in every aspect of the game,” said Virginia High head coach Barry Reed.
“If you don’t like to get physical, you don’t want to get in there with Workman. He’s physical and athletic and has good speed for a boy his size. He’s just hard to tend to,” said Reed.
Thomas Clarke scored 11 points for Graham (16-2), also handing out two assists, grabbing three rebounds and collecting two steals.
“It was a good senior night for the both of them,” said Graham head coach Glynn Carlock, Jr., who also got 13 points from sophomore post Garrett Dalton.
Under the Southern Empire Conference 39 points system, Thursday’s win over Virginia High gave the G-Men an insurmountable two-game lead over second-seeded Richlands.
Graham defeated Richlands 72-62 at home on January 19. Were the two teams to play again, the outcome could not affect the tournament seeding.
“Our conference has voted to do this for the last couple years now and we had enough points built up to have a two-game lead over Richlands. It doesn’t matter ... they can’t catch us,” said Carlock, who saw no point in risking injuries in a meaningless rematch.
“When you have a two-game lead and you were unable to make up that game due to mother nature, there’s nothing you can do. That’s why the point system is in place,” he said.
Robbie Medley scored 16 points to pace the Bearcats (8-14) Jordan Sowell scored 10 points.

At Graham Middle School
VIRGINIA HIGH (8-14)
Dawson Garrett 2 0-0 4, Blake Loggins 0 0-0 0, Takoda Carter 3 1-2 7, Ben Hazelwood 1 0-0 3, Alex Inman 2 3-8 7, Ashaad Delaney 0 3-4 3, Jordan Dixon 0 0-0 0, Jordan Sowell 4 2-6 10, Robbie Medley 6 4-5 16, Davian Gray 0 0-0 0, Josh Baylow 0 1-3 1. Totals 19 14-28 51.
GRAHAM (16-2)
Chandler Cooper 3 2-4 8, Nick Morgan 3 0-0 6, Roman Workman 9 6-8 25, Drew Baker 0 0-0 0, Chris Jones 1 1-2 3, Thomas Clarke 4 3-4 11, Emil Curto 3 1-3 7, Cameron Allen 0 2-2 2, Adam Cole 1 2-2 5, Darrin Martin 1 0-0 2, Nick Shoemaker 0 0-0 0, Nathan Figueroa 0 0-0 0, Tanner Miller 0 0-0 0, Garrett Dalton 5 3-3 13. 30 20-28 82.
Virginia High.................8 12 21 10 — 51
Graham.........................24 23 18 17 — 82
3-point goals: Virginia High 1 (Hazelwood), Graham 2 (Workman, Cole).