By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
ROCKY GAP, Va. — The Graham G-Girls’ drought in the winning column ended with a torrential downpour of points at Bland County High School on Friday night.
Graham canned 26 field goals and 16 of 31 free throws to defeat the Lady Bears 69-32 in the gym at Rocky Gap, ending a four-game losing streak.
The G-Girls (4-6) were 8 for 14 from the floor in the first quarter while their hosts were 0 for 11 as Graham took a 21-3 lead, benefiting from three blocks by Dejah Carter and a stifling press that kept Bland County (2-10) off balance.
Graham head coach Chris Southcott said, “Probably 70 percent of our games, we’ve been doing that same press. We did a better job of cutting down the passing lanes, making them reverse the ball ... and taking them out of their rhythm.”
Graham’s Lexi Kiser scored seven straight in the middle of the first half and had 18 points by intermission. She finished with 24, while Carter sank seven field goals for 18 points. She also had four blocks before sitting for a large part of the second half.
Southcott said, “The two of them together are going to be a pretty tough duo to stop, throughout the year.”
Bland County had 18 turnovers in the first half.
Graham came out of halftime by scoring nine straight points, increasing their lead to 50-13 and ending any comeback hopes for Bland County, which lost its seventh straight game.
Southcott said, “We definitely played like we think we were capable of playing.”
The Lady Bears were 9 of 45 from the floor overall, and made 12 of 24 free throws. Lakyn Patterson led the way with nine points.
Caitlin Vance came off the Graham bench and went 6-for-6 at the charity stripe.
Bland County will be on the road for its next two games, starting on Monday at Auburn. Graham will host Narrows on Monday evening.
Graham won the JV game behind 16 points by Amanda Stroupe and 11 each from Carly Moretto and Brittany Tignor.

At Bland County High School
GRAHAM (4-6)
Lexi Kiser 10 3-6 24, Miranda Hagerman 1 0-0 2, Caitlin Vance 0 6-6 6, Jennifer Day 0 1-2 1, Casey Spencer 2 1-4 5, Stephanie Kestner 1 0-0 2, Christina Mounzer 1 1-2 3, Karrah Large 3 0-2 6, Dejah Carter 7 4-10 18, Sydney Yost 1 0-0 2. Totals 26 16-31 69.
ROCKY GAP (2-10)
Lindsey Watters 3 0-0 6, Malee Lambert 0 3-6 3, Macey Scott 0 4-8 4, Sidney Walker 0 2-4 2, Lakyn Patterson 3 1-4 9, Tori Smith 2 2-2 6, Kristen Dillow 1 0-0 2. Totals 9 12-24 32.
Graham.....................21 20 17 11 — 69
Bland County..............3 10 2 17 — 32
3-point goals — Graham, 1 (Kiser). BC, none.