By LARRY HYPES
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, Va. — The fiddlers’ convention may be seven months away but the Galax Lady Maroon Tide showed up to play some string music Friday.
Sparked by the quickness of Bailey Shumate and Sydney Lindsey, Galax jumped out to an 11-0 lead and held off a late Graham rally to earn a 40-29 Mountain Empire District win over the G-Girls.
Galax (8-3, 1-0) gained a measure of satisfaction after getting beaten easily last season before Graham joined the MED.
Karly Morgan paced the G-Girls (6-4, 0-1) with nine points, including five in the opening stanza for Tracy Raban’s squad.
Inside pressure forced Graham outside early and the G-Girls missed their first seven shots while Shumate drilled two three-pointers in the opening four minutes. Kaylan Stanley’s two first quarter free throws with 2:00 on clock finally ended the G-Girls’ scoring drought against the relentless Galax defenders.
Lindsey, a freshman, noted, “We worked really hard on defense this week on what we thought Graham would do. This was a big game for all of us. I admit I was nervous but after I touched the ball for the first time, everything was much better.
“We all tried really hard to play a good game to open the district season on the road in a big gym like this.”
Tenacious Liz Workman, a standout for the G-Girls, got saddled with her third foul in the final two minutes of the first half and that was a concern for Graham. In a very slow second quarter (Galax outscored Graham 4-2) Leah Gillespie’s opening foul shots were the only G-Girl points as the home team went scoreless the final seven minutes of the half.
Graham’s second period defense was nearly as good, allowing just a Allison White and Lindsey’s put-back score before the break.
Despite Workman’s foul woes, Graham battled back and played Galax on even terms in the second half. In fact, the Girls put on a seven-point run to cut a 31-16 deficit entering the fourth quarter down to just 8 points, at 33-25, with 2:14 remaining.
Steals and scores by Candice Lewis and Workman, coupled with a Morgan basket, fueled the attack. However, Paige Hanks’ key three-pointer from deep in the corner turned the momentum around and Galax closed out the win in solid fashion.
Stats favored the winners, as Graham was 7-of-18 from the line and was outshot from the field.
The Tide was determined to roll in the first-ever district meeting between the two teams, said Shumate, a senior who recalls last year’s non-district loss in the Graham Middle School gym.
“I think we got beat by about 30,” noted Shumate. “We worked very hard this week in practice. We never wanted that to happen again. We wanted to win big tonight and maybe put a little scare in them (Graham) early in the season before they have to play us again.”
The G-Girls were just trying to win, however, and they knew coming in that Galax would be tough.
“We respect Galax a lot and we’re glad to be in the Mountain Empire,” said Morgan. “These teams play some great basketball. I’m proud of our effort tonight. We want it (victory) and we just have to get better.
Making our free throws would help, too.”
The G-Girls started slowly but played hard down the stretch, a fact noted by Coach Raban.
“I told our players we had to play four hard quarters, and we probably got two-and-a-half. The last quarter, we played defense like Graham has become known for. It was tough on Liz (Workman) to get those fouls but she got some partly because she was flying around out there trying to make something happen,” Raban said. “If everybody else played that hard the whole game, she would maybe not have been in that situation. We all have to fly around and play with total effort to win.”
Shumate finished with eight points while Lindsey led the Tide with 10. Allison White added a solid nine points for the winners.
Galax coach Yerrick Stoneman noted, “We worked all week on our man-to-man defense, how to guard screens and weak-side things like that. We were fortunate that a lot of what we practiced was what Graham did and that helped us.
“Our girls had to adjust to a few things — Graham has a bigger gym than ours, a longer court, we have to deal with a different depth perception the first part of the game.
“Offensively, I was very proud of the way we handled that. Graham played real well in the second half. We knew they would make a run and we played hard to hold them off at the end. Coach Raban did a good job of turning them (Graham) around, made some adjustments and we ended up having a great game between two hard-working teams.”
The Maroon Tide hosts Fort Chiswell on Wednesday at 6 p.m. while the G-Girls return to action today (Saturday) at Graham Middle School with a quad match starting at 3 p.m. featuring junior varsity girls and boys before the varsity teams begin, probably around 6 p.m.

At Graham Middle School
GALAX (8-3, 1-0)
Channing Russell 2, Bailey Shumate 8, Allison White 9, Taylor Bryant 5, Paige Hanks 6, Syndey Lindsey 10. Totals 11 4 6-11 40.
GRAHAM (6-4, 0-1)
Karly Morgan 9, Tori Repass 1, Liz Workman 6, Candice Lewis 2, Leah Gillespie 5, Kaylan Stanley 4, Hannah Stowers 2. Totals 8 2 7-18 29.
Galax.....................................16 4 11 9 — 40
Graham...................................7 2 7 13 — 29
Three-point goals – Galax 4 (Shumate 2, Bryant 1, Hanks 1). Graham 2 (Morgan 1, Gillespie 1). Fouled out – none.