By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, Va. — The Bluefield Beavers gave the Graham G-Men a lot to ponder in the second half on Saturday night.
Jordan Ponder, that is.
In his final basketball game against Graham, the Bluefield senior scored 15 second-half points and had a pair of crucial steals as the Beavers swept the cross-border rivalry with a 74-67 win at Graham Middle School.
Ponder said, “Sometimes, they were just looking at me to run the offense on the floor for the team, and to make big plays, and to keep us going and running and running, all the time.”
Bluefield (5-5) head coach Buster Large said, “It’s a character win for our program. I’m telling you, these fans here tonight saw one great high school basketball game ... and great sportsmanship by everyone — players, spectators, that’s what sports is all about.”
“Our kids can walk out of here holding their heads high. And the Graham G-Men have a great basketball team, too, and they need to be holding their heads high.”
He added, “We had floor balance. We had a lot of different people contributing to this win.”
Graham (9-3) head coach Glynn Carlock Jr. said, “We got out-scrapped, and we got out-played. They wanted the game more than we did.”
The Beavers broke out of a 6-6 tie to claim a 13-8 lead with five minutes gone in the game. Three straight 3-point goals by Graham, two of them by Roman Workman, launched a 13-0 run to finish out the quarter and Graham led by eight.
Moments after Graham’s Tony Hood got a technical foul called on him, he pulled off a steal and turned it into a layup to push the G-Men’s lead to 25-14.
Ponder said, “I was just thinking, keep fighting. We were down nine, and the team wasn’t giving up. We were just looking to keep fighting back.”
The Beavers cut into the gap by turning up the defensive pressure, getting six steals in the last seven minutes of the half.
The visitors briefly re-took the lead 34-33 on Jeremy Thompson’s trey with 31 seconds left. Hood then fed a pass to fed a pass to fellow senior Colby Hill, who sidestepped a defender and fired a pretty shot from the elbow that connected at the buzzer to give the G-Men a 35-34 lead.
The Beavers outscored their hosts 11-4 to open the second half, but Graham closed the gap to 50-49 in the final minute of the third period.
Hood said, “We just wanted to fight to get back in it, fight to win. For me and Colby and Jacob (Simpson), our senior season is slowly coming to an end. We fought hard. Unfortunately, we couldn’t come out with a win.”
Again in the final stanza, Bluefield’s press helped them to an 11-3 run and a 61-54 lead. Three times in the final minutes, the G-Men pulled within four points, but Bluefield salted the game away by going 11 for 12 at the free throw line. Ponder made 5 of 6 in the last 36 seconds.
Ponder said, “I was ready to just zone out and make these free throws. I knew we needed it for the team. It was best for the team.”
Large said, “We’re a running team, a pressing team, and that was one of the most productive nights we’ve had from our press.”
Hood scored his 1,000th varsity point with 41.2 seconds left — and it didn’t even go through the hoop. Goaltending was called, and a timeout allowed Hood to jog into the stands and give the basketball to his mother, Chere Esters.
Carlock said, “He’s a phenomenal young man, he’s a terrific basketball player, and he has done a great job for this team this year — and all four years that he’s been here. I’m really proud of him.”
In early December, the Beavers got 20 points from Ponder en route to a 67-55 win over the G-Men. Hood led Graham with 27 points.
Graham had won eight straight after that setback last month, but now has lost its last two games. Friday’s game with Grayson County was postponed.
The Beavers were playing again about 24 hours after a home loss to third-ranked Westside on Friday.
The G-Men will visit Richlands on Tuesday and will return home to play Galax on Friday. The Beavers are at home for their next three games, starting with a visit on Tuesday by James Monroe.
Carlock said, “If we don’t get better quick, we’re staring a lot of good teams in the eyes right here. We have to get in the gym on Monday, and get better and improve, and get the ship righted in the right direction.”
Large said, “This was just a good win we needed, to kick-start going into the next six weeks, because we’ve got more — hopefully — plans, later on in March.”
— Contact Tom Bone at
tbone@bdtonline.com;
Twitter @BDTBone

At Graham Middle School
BLUEFIELD (5-5)
Jeremy Thompson 6 4-7 19, Mookie Collier 4 4-4 12, Raheem Reed 0 0-2 0, Jordan Ponder 5 8-9 19, Corey Coppola 4 0-1 8, Matthew Woodrum 6 2-2 14, Donta Hopkins 1 0-2 2. Totals 26 18-27 74.
GRAHAM (9-3)
Tony Hood 10 4-4 25, Roman Workman 4 1-4 12, Thomas Clarke 3 0-0 7, Colby Hill 5 4-4 15, Tanner Miller 2 0-0 4, Garrett Dalton 2 0-0 4. Totals 26 9-12 67.
Bluefield.....................13 21 16 24 — 74
Graham......................21 14 14 18 — 67
3-point goals — Bluefield 4 (Thompson 3, Ponder 1); Graham 6 (Hood 1, Workman 3, Clarke 1, Hill 1). Total fouls — Bluefield 12, Graham 19. Fouled out — Clarke. Technical foul — Hood.