AM
Back on winning track
Graham (69) Vs. Narrows (49)
Jan 28, 2014
By BOB REDD
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
NARROWS, Va. — The Graham G-Men outscored the Narrows Green Wave 43-27 in the second half to claim a 69-49 win in a match-up of Mountain Empire District teams, Tuesday night at Narrows High School.
“It was nice to get back out here and get a momentum building win,” said Graham head coach Glynn Carlock. “The guys really played hard. We challenged them in practice and we were able to hopefully get back on track because we’ve to a tough stretch coming up.”
It was the second consecutive night the G-Men ventured into Giles County, as they traveled to Pearisburg, Monday night and fell to the Giles Spartans.
At the beginning it didn’t look too good for Graham as Narrows claimed the early lead, going up 6-2 thanks to two Rodney Perdue baskets and one by Austin Lively. Graham pulled even on two free throws by Thomas Clarke. Late in the first quarter the G-Men claimed their first lead on a jumper by Colby Hill with 1:58 on the clock. The Green Wave, however tied it seconds later on a basket by Lively.
There were first quarter ties at two, six and 10 before Graham led 12-11 after the first eight minutes of action.
Hill popped in a long three to open the second period and give the G-Men a four-point lead. Narrows fought back to tie the game at 15 on a steal and layup by Gavin Givens. It remained close the rest of the half and two free throws by Hill with 4.5 ticks on the clock gave Graham a 26-22 lead it took into the shortened halftime. Due to weather conditions halftime was shortened to five minutes.
The game took a major turn as the second half began.
Graham reeled off 12 unanswered points and Narrows was unable to put the ball through the hoop until Perdue converted a layup with 4:00 to play in the third. The G-Men outscored the Green Wave 23-7 in the stanza and carried a 49-29 lead into the final eight minutes of play.
The Graham lead grew as high as 24 points before Narrows made a run midway through the fourth period, pulling to within 16, at 57-41. The G-Men called time to regroup and then pushed the lead back to 20 points which was the final margin of victory.
“We’ve been in a major slump,” Carlock said. “We have been slumping for the last couple of games. We were out of school today (Tuesday) but we were able to get in the gym and try to run some things out both on the court and some things we needed to iron out.
“It’s not that we are not playing hard, it’s just some little things we had to line out on the court and on the chalkboard. We just weren’t doing some things well the last couple of ball games.”
Clarke led Graham with 20 points and Hill added 19.
“Thomas (Clarke) is all about energy. We feed off him as a team,” Carlock said. “He’s always going to be guarding their best offensive player. He’s always going to be in a trapping position when we set out half-court traps. We feed off him. It’s all about Thomas’ energy and it being contagious to the other guys.”
Narrows was paced by Lively with 15 and Chandler Burton tallied 13.
“We’ve been in that situation over the last several games where we string together a couple of good quarters, a handful of good minutes and then we just fall apart,” said Narrows head coach Chris Gautier. “Really it’s just mental errors at this point. One mental error led to another one tonight. There is no other excuse we can use except we lost it mentally, turnover after turnover, not executing on either end of the floor.
“That’s not the way we play. That’s not the way we teach. I expect to see change as we move forward.”

At Narrows High School
GRAHAM (11-6)
Tony Hood 3 0-0 7, Nick Morgan 4 0-2 8, Roman Workman 3 2-2 8, Chris Jones 1 0-0 3, Thomas Clarke 6 8-11 20, Colby Hill 6 6-6 19, Ben Meade 0 1-2 1, Jacob Simpson 0 0-0 0, Nick Shoemaker 1 1-2 3, Tanner Miller 0 0-0 0, Totals 24 18-15 69.
NARROWS (9-6)
Gavin Givens 3 0-2 6, Jackson Blankenship 0 0-0 0, Rodney Perdue 4 0-0 8, Kyle Hall 3 0-0 7, Chandler Burton 5 3-3 13, Aaron Collins 0 0-0 0, Cole Blaker 0 0-0 0, Jamie Scott 0 0-0 0, Devin Turner 0 0-0 0, Austin Lively 5 5-10 15, Totals 20 8-15 49.
Graham……………….12 14 23 20 — 69
Narrows………………11 11 7 20 — 49
3-point goals: G – 3 (Hood, Hill, Jones); N – 1 (Hall). Fouled out: G – None; N – Givens, Perdue. Technical fouls: None.
Nightly Roundup
Game Scoreboard
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 OT SCORE
Graham 12 14 23 20 0 69
Narrows 11 11 7 20 0 49
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