AM
Growing pains for Blue Tornado
Richlands (53) Vs. Lebanon (78)
Jan 24, 2014
By BOB REDD
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
RICHLANDS, Va. — The house was packed at Richlands Middle School, but the home crowd didn’t get all they wanted as the homestanding Richlands High School Blue Tornado fell to the Lebanon Pioneers 78-53.
“Martinsville, Graham, Lebanon, Abingdon, Virginia High. We are right in the meat of our schedule and we are taking some growing pains right now, but we’ll get through it,” said Richlands head coach Jody Fuller.
Lebanon opened the game on a 12-2 run but Richlands closed to within four on threes by Grant Herndon and Luke Phillips, but the inside play of the taller Lebanon squad and sharp-shooting from the perimeter proved trouble for the Blues as the Pioneers led 21-12 after the first quarter.
In the second period Richlands got its outside shot going, picking of threes from Phillips, Herndon and Ben Brown, but the Pioneers proved too much, especially Owen Slate, who hit from outside and inside, scoring 10 points in the stanza and leading his team to a 40-27 halftime lead. Down by as many as 20 early in the third, Richlands played its best defense in that quarter, holding Lebanon to 13 points while scoring 15, Scottie Ball and Landon Lowe coming off the bench to put the ball in the basket.
“We cut it to 11, had two really good looks and couldn’t cut any further into it,” Fuller said. “They went down, hit one and then it snowballed.”
Lebanon pulled away in the final quarter as once again they hit from long distance, three treys and claimed the victory.
Lebanon coach Thad Lambert said, “We hadn’t played a game in seven days and I was really happy with the energy and intensity we opened the game with. I thought Richlands played a really good third quarter.”
Ben Brown led Richlands with 13 points and Ball added 10. Lebanon had four scorers in double figures, led by Slate with 22. Big man Tanner Robinette dropped in 16, Will Stamper 13 and Ben Sexton 12.

At Richlands Middle School
LEBANON (11-3)
Ben Sexton 4 2-2 12, Jake Smith 3 0-0 6, Nick Helton 1 0-0 3, Will Stamper 4 2-2 13, Ben Long 1 0-0 3, Austin Bollinger 1 0-0 3, Owen Slate 9 3-5 22, Caleb Adams 0 0-0 0, Tanner Robinette 8 0-1 16, Totals 31 7-10 78.
RICHLANDS (6-8)
Luke Phillips 2 2-3 7, Grant Herndon 2 0-0 6, Cody Fuller 1 0-0 3, Ethan Ratliff 1 0-0 2, Scottie Ball 5 0-1 10, Ben Brown 3 5-10 13, Zach Johnson 2 0-0 4, Anthony Austin 0 0-0 0, Landon Lowe 2 4-5 8, Totals 18 11-19 53.
Lebanon……………….21 19 13 25 — 78
Richlands……......……12 15 15 11 — 53
3-point goals — Leb 8 (Sexton 2, Helton, Stamper 2, Long, Slate, Bollinger); Richl 6 (Phillips, Herndon 2, Fuller, Brown 2). Fouled out — None.
Nightly Roundup
Game Scoreboard
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 OT SCORE
Richlands 12 15 15 11 0 53
Lebanon 21 19 13 25 0 78
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