By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, Va. — Shooting the basketball has been an ongoing problem all season for the Graham G-Girls.
That trend continued on Friday night, but making just 8-of-50 shots from the field wasn’t the only factor that cost the G-Girls, which dropped a 40-27 decision to Galax in the Mountain Empire District tournament championship game on Friday night at Graham Middle School
“If I point fingers at anything, it is knowledge of the game,” Graham head coach Tracy Raban said. “Fundamentally, they just brought it to us, I hate to say it, but they are better fundamentally than us. They know the game and they execute their offense from just knowing the game.
“If I have to say why we lost I would point at that because as horrible as we shot the ball and you only lose by 13, they just executed and beat us on fundamentals.”
Graham lost for a third time this season to Galax, which added the tournament title to its first regular season MED championship since 2001.
Allison White paced Galax (20-4) with 12 points, while Sydney Lindsey came off the bench to score 10. Bailey Shumate, the MED player of the year as announced after the game, added eight.
“This group of seniors have been through a lot,” Galax head coach Yerrick Stoneman said. “When they were freshmen losing just about every game and then each year more and more. Last year we were 14-14 and went to the state quarterfinals so it is their year.
“I am hoping we can continue to play well next week.”
Graham can only hopes shots will drop next week when the G-Girls begin Region C, Division 2 play with a visit to James River on Wednesday.
They’ll go having made just 2-of-27 from the field in the opening half, but the G-Girls have managed to survive despite those problems much of the season. Not on this night.
“We have struggled with that all year and we have overcome it in games,” Raban said. “You had to be able to overcome it tonight. We didn’t shoot the ball, but I can’t point fingers to that because we have overcame it throughout the year.”
Graham had scored 21 points in the fourth quarter of its semifinal win over the Bland County the previous night, but it wasn’t to be on this night, as the Maroon Tide led by as much as 21, at 34-13 in third period, and 40-23 with 2:30 left in the game.
Liz Workman led Graham with nine points, while Leah Gillespie added six.
“It is kind of like the air went out of us midway through the third quarter,” Raban said. “It was disappointing, I felt like we would play with pride all four quarters regardless of what the score was on the board.
“I felt like we still had a chance coming off the fourth quarter that we did the night before. I just don’t know if they believed in themselves and we just didn’t do enough to close that gap and give ourselves a chance.”
Galax jumped out to a 6-0 lead in less two minutes and didn’t score again until 1:10 left in the opening period, but the G-Girls were 1-14 from the field against the Tide’s man-to-man defense, with Alysia Leung making a layup with 28:6 seconds on the clock to pull Graham within 11-3 through the first eight minutes.
Both teams shot blanks in the next period, with the clubs combining to shoot 1-21 from the field. Galax did made seven free throws, while Graham got the lone field goal on a basket by Hannah Stowers to make it 18-8 at the break.
Galax didn’t do much better, making 4-21 from the field, but were 8-15 from the charity stripe in the opening half.
“I think Graham normally does do a good job shooting, I just think they were off tonight,” said Stoneman, who earned MED coach of the year honors. “(Raban) does an excellent job with them coaching those girls, they have always played hard.
“We have played them five times, two last year and she is a great coach and she does a great job with the girls that she has.”
Galax, whose only MED loss this season came in the surprising loss to Narrows in the regular season finale, was able to regroup and beat Grayson County and the G-Girls on consecutive nights to claim the title.
“The last two games we have not played well...I think a lot of it has to do with our girls having played 50-some game with no rest and it is starting to wear down on them,” Stoneman said. “It is my job as a coach to back down on them a little bit, change things up, make it a little funner and that is what we did today in practice.
“We did some different things and it just helped and it came together really well as a team and our intensity level was up to tonight.”
Graham saw an early sign of progress after the break, with Gillespie driving to the hoop and connecting on a finger roll to cut the lead to 20-10.
Galax answered with a 14-3 run, sparked by five points from White and four by Lindsey. Workman scored on a drive to make it 34-18 after three periods.
Lindsey swiped a Graham pass and drove the distance to the hoop to push Galax up 36-18 to open the final period. Even though the Maroon Tide made just four free throws the rest of the way — finishing 16-25 for the game — the G-Girls could only get as close at 13 on a late 3 by Taylor Williams.
“It was like we were in slow motion tonight,” Raban said. “In a big game like this you hope they get up and you don’t have to motivate them and I felt like at times we had two or three going hard, but not all five.
“It comes down to lack of execution and just not putting the ball in the basket.”
Galax was able to beat the G-Girls for a third time this season. Graham had lost 40-29 and 43-36 in the other meetings.
“Don’t take anything away from them, they are the better ball club, they were tonight anyway,” Raban said. “The two games in the regular season were closer than that, but tonight they were by far the better ball club, fundamentally and knowledge of the game.
“I guess when it comes down to it they wanted it a little bit more than we did.”

at Graham Middle School
GRAHAM (14-10)
Karly Morgan 0 0-0 0, Tori Repass 0 0-0 0, Liz Workman 2 5-11 9, Leah Gillespie 2 2-7 6, Hannah Stowers 1 0-0 2, Erin Wilson 0 0-0 0, Alysia Leung 2 0-0 4, Candace Lewis 0 3-4 3, Kaylan Stanley 0 0-0 0, Taylor Williams 1 0-0 3, Ashley Matthews 0 0-0 0, Ashley Cruise 0 0-0 0. Totals 8-50 10-22 27.
GALAX (20-4)
Channing Russell 1 0-1 2, Bailey Shumate 2 3-3 8, Allison White 3 6-10 12, Taylor Bryant 1 2-2 5, Hailey Cassell 1 0-0 2, Sydney Lindsey 3 4-6 10, Susan Davis 0 0-1 0, Lindsay Ayers 0 1-2 1, Haley Reynolds 0 0-0 0, Paige Hanks 0 0-0 0, Holly Cassell 0 0-0 0, Kate Mohr 0 0-0 0. Totals 11-43 16-25 40.
Graham.....................................3 5 10 9 — 27
Galax.......................................11 7 16 6 — 40
3-point goals: GR 1 (Williams 1); GX 2 (Shumate 1, Bryant 1). Total fouls: GR 19; GX 18, Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.
Boys
Galax 68,
Grayson County 50
Austin Pack scored 25 points and MED Player of the Year Lawrence Parsons added 17 as the Maroon Tide made it a sweep for Galax in the MED boys championship game over the Blue Devils.
Grayson County used a 17-0 run to take a 22-14 second quarter lead, but the Maroon Tide tied it at 28 at halftime, and then outscored the Blue Devils 23-9 in the third quarter and 40-22 in the second half to add the tournament title to the regular season crown.
Deion George added 12 points for Galax (22-2), which will continue the defense of its Group A, Division 1 state title in the Region C tournament next week.
Grayson County (15-10) was paced by Ty Cannady and Mikey Rodgers with 12 points each, and 11 from Max Rodgers.
— Contact Brian Woodson
at bwoodson@bdtonline.com