By BOB REDD
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
RICHLANDS, Va. — The Graham G-Men used a strong second half to pull away from the Richlands Blue Tornado and gain a 78-56 Conference 39 win, Thursday night.
The temperature outside Richlands Middle School may have been eight degrees, but inside, at least at the beginning of the game, it was hot and raining — raining three point baskets.
Luke Phillips hit three and Cody Fuller one from behind the arc to stake the Blue Tornado to a 19-16 lead at the end of the first quarter. Richlands’ lead was at one point seven points before Graham knotted things at 16 on Colby Hill’s trey.
Graham came out firing in the second stanza and went on a 13-2 run on two threes by Thomas Clarke and one by Nick Morgan. Scottie Ball’s three brought the Blues back to within three points and Phillips lay up with 1:10 to play before the half made it a one-point game. Morgan and Hill then hit threes to give Graham a 37-32 halftime lead.
In total there were 11 three point shots made in the first half, six by Graham and five by Richlands.
Back-to-back three pointers by Roman Workman and Hill opened the second half for the G-Men who took control of the game during the period and led by 15, 55-40 going into the fourth quarter.
“The reason we were having a tough (first) half was because of the way Richlands was playing,” said Graham head coach Glynn Carlock. “They were doing things that were frustrating us. They’re a very young team and they are going to be deadly. They’ve got a tremendous bunch of guys. It seems like they ran out of steam in the third quarter and we were able to capitalize on it.”
Richlands head coach Jody Fuller said, “We ran out of gas and they (Graham) are pretty good. Coach Carlock’s got a good team. We just didn’t shoot the ball well tonight. Defensively, early, we kind of took them out of what they like to do and then a lot of (their) kids caught fire, knocking shots down that we were daring them to.”
Hill led Graham and all scorers with 23 points. Workman followed with 19, Clarke 16 and Morgan 11.
Richlands was paced by Phillips with 18, Grant Herndon tallied 11 and Ben Brown added 10.
“It’s a hard place to get a win, down here in Richlands, but it’s another conference win for us, so we are moving on,” Carlock said.
Graham travels to Galax tonight.
“For us to compete we’ve got to shoot the ball well because we’re giving up size and maturity,” Fuller said.
Richlands, which starts three freshmen, will entertain Lebanon tonight.

At Richlands Middle School
GRAHAM (10-4)
Tony Hood 1 0-0 2, Nick Morgan 4 1-3 11, Roman Workman 8 0-0 19, Chris Jones 1 0-0 3, Thomas Clarke 6 1-2 16, Colby Hill 6 7-9 23, Ben Meade 0 0-0 0, Jacob Simpson 0 0-0 0, Nick Shoemaker 0 0-0 0, Tanner Miller 1 2-2 4, Totals 27 11-16 78.
RICHLANDS (6-7)
Luke Phillips 6 3-3 18, Grant Herndon 4 0-0 11, Cody Fuller 2 0-0 5, Ethan Ratliff 1 0-0 3, Scottie Ball 2 1-2 5, Ben Brown 4 2-2 10, Zach Johnson 1 0-0 2, Anthony Austin 0 0-0 0, Landon Lowe 1 0-3 2, Totals 21 6-10 56.
Graham………………..16 21 18 23 — 78
Richlands……………..19 13 8 16 — 56
3-point goals: G – 13 (Morgan 2, Workman 3, Jones 1, Clarke 3, Hill 4; R – 8 (Phillips 3, Herndon 3, Fuller 1, Ratliff 1) Fouled out: None. Technical Fouls: None.