By BOB REDD
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BRUSHFORK — The Bluefield Beavers began defense of their state title, hosting the Graham G-Men at the Brushfork Armory in their season opening contest. Before a large enthusiastic crowd that represented both teams well, the Beavers held off a late G-Men charge and claimed a 67-55 win.
Bluefield freshman Donta Hopkins opened the scoring, his first shot as a varsity player swishing through the net from the left baseline to give the Beavers a 3-0 lead. Jordan Ponder’s three made it 6-0 before Roman Workman converted on a three-point play with 5:45 to play in the opening frame to put Graham on the board.
Ponder set the pace for Bluefield as he dropped in two more buckets and helped lift the Beavers to a 15-9 lead at the end of the first period.
In the second Ponder hit another three and a deuce before going to the bench with his third foul midway through the quarter. The G-Men then made a charge to close the gap from 13 to seven. Tony Hood’s NBA-range three from the left wing made it 29-22. Hood had three baskets from behind the arc in the period. Bluefield then outscored Graham 5-2 to end the half and take a 33-24 lead into the intermission.
Hood was the man on fire for Graham in the third as he scored eight points and Graham pulled to within seven on several occasions but could not get any closer. Ponder remained on the Bluefield bench until midway through the quarter. When he came in he scored eight points to once again spark the Beavers.
Down 11 to start the final eight minutes, big man Garrett Dalton came up big inside for the G-Men. His basket with five minutes to play made it a five point game and his shot from the wing closed the margin to three at 51-48. Graham got to within three on several occasions, but could not get any closer.
Ponder fouled out with 2:59 to play and Bluefield ahead by four, but two Jeremy Thompson free throws put the home team back ahead by six and the Beavers finished the game with free throws and breakaways to reach their final margin of victory.
Ponder led Bluefield with 20 points and Thompson added 15. Hood paced Graham with a game-high 27 and Dalton tossed in 12.
"A win is a win,” said Bluefield head coach Buster Large. “They (Graham) have got a great team. They’re going to win some games and are going to be one of the best high school teams in the area this year.
“Give our kids some credit. They battled, we hung in there, we made some big plays when it counted. We had to run some clock off in the second half with Jordan’s foul trouble, but we found a way to win and that’s what counts. I’m very pleased with the effort. You’ve got to realize we’re young at some spots, but we grew up a lot tonight.”
A dejected Graham head coach Glynn Carlock said, “We didn’t shoot the ball. You don’t shoot the ball you aren’t going to win. We came out as flat as a pancake shooting the ball. It looked like there was something over the rim. We had wide open looks, couldn’t hit them. You get yourself in a deficit and you spend three quarters to get out of it. That’s all I can say.”
Large talked about the first shot of Hopkins’ varsity career, a three-point goal to start the scoring for the Beavers.
“We didn’t plan that but I like his confidence,” Large said. Continuing on his team’s effort, “We didn’t turn the ball over much, but one area where we’ve got to improve is rebounding. We didn’t rebound very well at all, but we’re going to take this win, come back tomorrow, work a little bit harder on some things and get ready for a big game Thursday night.”
Bluefield won the JV game 68-48.
Bluefield (1-0) hosts Princeton, Thursday at the Brushfork Armory while Graham (1-1) entertains Tazewell on Friday.

At Brushfork Armory
GRAHAM (1-1)
Tony Hood 9 6-6 27, Nick Morgan 0 0-0 0, Roman Workman 1 3-3 5, Thomas Clarke 1 0-0 2, Colby Hill 2 3-5 7, Tanner Miller 1 0-0 2, Garrett Dalton 6 0-0 12, Totals 20 12-14 55.
BLUEFIELD (1-0)
Donta Hopkins 3 1-1 8, Jordan Huckleberry 1 2-2 4, Jeremy Thompson 5 4-5 15, Latrell Collier 1 0-0 2, Raheem Reed 2 0-0 4, Jordan Ponder 8 2-2 20, Omar Logan 0 0-0 0, Corey Coppola 4 1-4 9, Matthew Woodrum 2 1-2 5, Totals 26 11-16 67.
Graham...................9 15 12 19 — 55
Bluefield................15 18 14 20 — 67
Three point baskets: G-3 (Hood 3); B-4 (Hopkins 1, Thompson 1, Ponder 2)