By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, Va. — Three wins in a row has Dennis Palmer thinking positive about his Lady Blues.
Brittany Allen scored 16 points and Cassidy Richardson added 13, leading Richlands to a season sweep of Graham with a 53-33 win over the G-Girls on Saturday night at Graham Middle School.
Richlands (5-3), which won the school’s first-ever Region IV championship last season, has a new coach this season, and it showed early, with the Blues starting the campaign at 2-3, including a 61-28 win over the G-Girls.
“We were a little bit erratic starting the season off,” said Palmer, who replaced James “Moose” Cochran at the helm. “We were dealing with a different system and a little bit different style from what they had been used to playing so it had taken time to get it together.”
After a tight first quarter that saw eight lead changes and two ties, the Blue Tornado outscored the G-Girls 42-21 in the final three quarters.
“I thought it was a struggle from the opening tip to the end of the game tonight for us because we have been playing better than what we played tonight,” Palmer said. “Give Graham credit, their little match-up zone they played against us took us a little bit and we had trouble rebounding again, we are really going to have to work on our rebounding.”
While Graham led 12-11 after the opening period, the G-Girls struggled trying to put the ball in the hole, including making just one field goal in each of the middle quarters, connecting on just 2-of-29 shot attempts.
Graham (6-5), which has lost three in a row, was also just 13-26 from the free throw line.
“I felt like over half of (our shots) were good looking shots, you run your offense, you execute your offense, and we just don’t knock down the shots,” Graham head coach Tracy Raban said. “As a coach it is hard, it is like ‘what do you do’.
“Your kids get their head down and you want to tell them to keep shooting, but by golly, we can’t put it in the goal. Then you want to say go to the basket and get foul shots and we had trouble with that too.”
Allen scored 10 of her 16 points in the second half, including eight in the fourth quarter as the Lady Blues pulled away after the G-Girls were within nine, at 31-22, with 1:59 to go in the third period.
Richlands was able to beat the G-Girls one night after stopping Abingdon in a Southwest District affair.
“I do feel good about that, playing last night and coming back today and playing,” Palmer said. “The girls are playing hard and they are working hard. We have just got to get some little things we are not doing that will make us a little bit better.
“We are starting to get the concept of it and now we just have to get the little things like our rebounding, turnovers, taking care of the ball that will help us get to that next level we want to get to.”
Graham was led by Liz Workman with eight points on 8-14 shooting from the charity stripe, while Tori Repass added six on a pair of 3s.
“I felt like the intensity tonight was a lot better than it had been the last couple of nights,” said Raban, whose G-Girls dropped their Mountain Empire District debut to Galax on Friday. “After a couple of losses the kids want to hang their heads so we tried to tell them to come out tonight and play with some pride and determination.
“I felt like for most of the game they did that. There were a couple mental letdowns here or there that cost us, but overall trying to find the positives out of it, I felt like that we played with the intensity tonight that we needed.”
Richlands will try to stay within a game of Carroll County in the SWD on Wednesday with a visit to Tazewell.
“That is going to be a big district game,” Palmer said. “With a small district you can’t afford two losses or it may knock you out so it is going to be a big game.”
Graham has a busy week ahead, starting with a non-league slate on Monday at Giles, followed by MED games later in the week at Narrows and against Bland County.
“Monday is a big game. After three losses in a row I feel like we need to come back and get a win to get some momentum going into those two district games next week which are big for us,” Raban said. “It was tough losing the first (district) one last night.
“We want to get back on the winning side in the district so at Giles on Monday, I think as a coaching staff, is huge for us to go get that ‘W’.”
—Contact Brian Woodson
at bwoodson@bdtonline.com


at Graham Middle School
RICHLANDS (5-3)
Davis 1 1-2 4, Cassidy Richardson 3 7-12 13, Brittany Allen 5 5-6 16, Jordyn Cole 1 0-0 3, R.Alley 2 1-2 5, Hearl 2 1-2 5, Compton 1 1-2 3, Hess 2 0-0 4, H.Alley 0 0-0 0, Casey 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 16-26 53.
GRAHAM (6-5)
Morgan 2 0-0 4, Workman 0 8-14 8, Lewis 2 2-4 6, Gillespie 0 0-0 0, Stowers 0 1-2 1, Repass 2 0-0 6, Stanley 1 1-4 3, Moretto 2 1-2 5, Williams 0 0-0 0, Matthews 0 0-0 0. Totals 9 13-26 33.
Richlands..........................................11 13 11 18 — 53
Graham.............................................12 4 6 11 — 33
3-point goals: RL 3 (Allen 1, Davis 1, Cole 1); GR 2 (Repass 2). Total fouls: RL 20; GR 19. Fouled out: Workman. JV—GR 23-14.