By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
RICHLANDS, Va. — More important for the Graham G-Men than running their winning streak to seven games was another stat on Friday night — being 1-0 in the Conference 39 tournament.
The G-Men, the top seed in the new conference tourney alignment, blew out to a 10-0 against Grundy on the Richlands Middle School court and fought off a second-half surge by the Golden Wave to take a 79-63 win and land a place in tonight's conference championship.
In their first game since Feb. 11, Graham hit 3-pointers on three of their first four shots, and got five defensive rebounds in the first four minutes to establish a sure footing.
The G-Men made slightly more than half of their field-goal attempts in the first half, going 14 for 27, while Grundy made 10 of 31 tries. The two teams traded field goals in their last six possessions of the half in an entertaining conclusion to a hard-fought two quarters.
Graham's defensive pressure and transition offense were not to be denied.
Graham head coach Glynn Carlock Jr. said the Graham press “allowed us to get out and get some easy buckets, but Grundy has a youthful team, and they'll be back and be stronger next year and get better next year.”
He said that Grundy was “under the radar” for them because of being unfamiliar with the Golden Wave. But he had obviously studied them.
“They did a lot of things well,” Carlock said. “They did a lot of things well that we do not do well. So we were worried, coming in, that there were going to be some mis-matches, in certain areas … but we were able to shore it up and play a pretty good game tonight.”
Five points by Thomas Clarke to open up the second half stretched Graham's lead to 47-25. Grundy scored the next seven points, but Graham finished the quarter on a 7-1 run. Two feeds from Clarke to Tanner Miller in the paint led to the last four points of the frame, giving the G-Men a 56-39 edge that the Golden Wave was not able to dent seriously thereafter.
Charles McCoy paced Grundy's attack with 10 of the Wave's 26 field goals, and 22 points.
Grundy's only senior, Wes Peck, awoke in the second half, scoring 14 of his 18 points after intermission.
Peck said his senior year back at Grundy “has been one of my best years. … I just wanted to come back and be with my friends.”
He said that going into the second half, “I asked the teammates if they'd do it for me. So we kept it up and kept going.”
Grundy head coach Todd Tiller said, “We got down early … and had to fight back the whole time, from their. The kids, they never gave up, though. I loved their effort, and that's what they give me every night.”
Tiller said about Peck, “Wes is a special player, with his vision and everything. You can't say enough about a kid like that. It hurts to lose a kid like that.”
Looking to the future, he said, “We've got a lot of kids back. I've got a lot to build around with the kids I've got coming back.”
Tony Hood had a superb night for Graham, scoring 28 points including four 3-point shots. Colby Hill nailed seven field goals and was 4 for 4 at the foul line for 19 points. Clarke added another four treys and scored 14 points.
Hood said, “We came out and played very effectively in the first quarter. We got off good shots and got back on D (defense).”
“We just didn't want this to end today. We wanted to go farther than what we did last year, so it motivated us all to come out and play hard tonight.”
Carlock said, “We're facing a team (Saturday) night (Richlands) that's probably one of the hottest teams in Southwest Virginia. … Coach Fuller does a great job with them. They're going to be playing in front of their home crowd, and I know they're going to count on shooting the ball extremely well.”
“They've got a group that sticks together, and they're going to be hard to handle here.”

At Richlands Middle School
GRUNDY (13-12)
Ethan Duty 2 0-2 4, Charles McCoy 10 2-8 22, Wes Peck 6 3-4 18, Jordan McCoy 2 1-2 5, Christian Jackson 1 0-0 2, Baylen Dillow 5 0-0 12. Totals 26 6-16 63.
GRAHAM (16-6)
Tony Hood 8 8-11 28, Nick Morgan 1 0-0 3, Roman Workman 3 2-2 9, THomas Clarke 5 0-0 14, Colby Hill 7 4-4 19, Tanner Miller 3 0-0 6. Totals 27 14-17 79.
Grundy......................17 6 16 24 — 63
Graham.....................26 16 14 23 — 79
3-point goals -- Gru 5 (Peck 3, B. Dillow 2); Gra 11 (Hood 4, Morgan 1, Workman 1, Clarke 4, Hill 1). Fouled out-- none.