By LARRY HYPES
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, Va. — Three out of four is not bad.
The Graham G-Men had 20 or more points in three quarters, overcame an 11-point first quarter deficit and held on for a dramatic 79-77 non-district win over the Tazewell Bulldogs Wednesday despite Jalen Jordan’s dazzling 33-point effort.
Long distance shooting and up-close inbounds defense keyed the Graham (6-6) victory, which avenged a two-point loss to the Bulldogs last month at Tazewell.
Four players were in double digits for GHS including Tyler Thompson’s 16, followed by Colby Hill with 15, Lamont Edwards (12), and Tony Hood (10), with Spencer Sheets right behind at 9.
Tazewell (7-6) jumped out to a 12-1 lead in the opening stanza including a trey by Colin Hancock, a pair of Noah Walker buckets, and three free throws from Christian Lewis. The single point for Graham was Sheets’ foul shot three minutes into the game.
With Tazewell in front 15-9, Graham opened the second stanza by scoring 5 points in 7 seconds including a corner trey by red-hot Thompson and Corey Coppola’s steal and score. Edwards began to hit from long range for GHS and Coppola’s inside play kept the Dogs out of their rhythm as Graham chipped away.
From that point, it was virtual standoff between the long-time rivals as the G-Men enjoyed an advantage on the boards and with their press while Tazewell held an edge with medium-range shooting and free throw percentage. The G-Men hit 8 treys while the Bulldogs were 19-of-25 at the stripe. Graham hit 21-of-37 at the line.
The Bulldogs led 39-34 at the break.
Hood was a spark for Graham after halftime, scoring all his points late in the contest, and with Tazewell falling into foul trouble, the Bulldogs turned to the 6-1 Jordan, who was nearly unstoppable in the third period.
He scored 9 straight points, including a pair of quick buckets, a long three-pointer, and a pair of foul shots.
“I’ve never shot that well before,” said Jordan, who had 11 the night before at Marion. “We played real well at times but Graham was making the defensive plays at the end. No excuses – we just got beat. Now, I’m going home and make sure my homework is done and work hard tomorrow in practice. We’ll be ready for the next game.”
The teams swapped the lead nine times in the fourth period, with the last tie coming at 75-all when Jordan hit a pair of free throws. Edwards answered with two charity shots of his own at the :44 mark for the G-Men. Hill and Sheets had single free throws in the last 10 seconds sandwiched around Jordan’s final bucket to seal the deal.
“We just wanted to come out and work hard, put pressure on Tazewell, get good inbounds screens, and never give up,” said Sheets. “We couldn’t score at the beginning of the game but you couldn’t ask for a better effort down the stretch than my teammates gave. We gave what we had tonight.”
Noah Walker had another strong night for the Bulldogs with 12 points, 15 rebounds, and 6 blocked shots. Jordan led all scorers and also grabbed 6 rebounds and had four steals. Colin Hancock and Blake Hash added 10 points apiece for Tazewell.
“All you can ask is that the players play hard, and every one of our guys did,” said Bulldog coach Lee Walker. “Graham just played a little harder. Jalen (Jordan) was really on tonight – it was a fun game to watch. Two games in two nights in the middle of the week is a little tough but we’ll get going again Tuesday against Abingdon with our legs under us.”
Hood said, “Coach Carlock gave us a little pep talk at halftime and we tried to get those 20 in each quarter and not let Tazewell pull away from us again. It worked out fine.”
Graham mentor Carlock was tired but happy.
“We had a lot of heroes tonight,” said the GHS coach. “Our goal is to score 20 points a quarter and we did that three times including the fourth quarter when we got by them (Tazewell) 21-17 and that proved to be the difference. Tyler Thompson was shooting. He got a little tired but he gave us everything he had. Colby (Hill) played well off the dribble, was solid on defense, and Lamont Edwards really stepped up including 6-for-6 at the line with the game in the balance.
“Tony (Hood) scored a bunch in the second half, and looking back Corey Coppola was the defensive difference. Corey held Noah (Walker) to 12 and when anybody can keep Noah down to only 12 points, that’s fantastic.”
Tazewell hosts Abingdon Tuesday while the G-Men entertain Bland in a quad meeting with the junior varsity girls starting at 4:30 p.m. at Graham Middle School, following by the j.v. boys, varsity girls and varsity boys.
Tazewell won the junior varsity game 41-38, led by 18 points from Juwan Jordan, who is Jalen’s brother.

at Graham Middle School
TAZEWELL (7-6)
Christian Lewis 6, Blake Hash 10, Colin Hancock 10, Ryan Hankins 2, Noah Walker 12, John Walker 4, Jalen Jordan 33. Totals 20 6 19-25 77.
GRAHAM (6-6)
Tony Hood 10, Spencer Sheets 9, Gray Baker 4, Zach Proffitt 3, Corey Coppola 8, Colby Hill 15, Lamont Edwards 12, Andrew Day 2, Tyler Thompson 16. Totals 17 8 21-37 79.
Tazewell........................15 24 21 17 — 77
Graham..........................9 25 24 21 — 79
Three-point goals: TZ, 6 (Hancock 2, Hash 2, Jordan 1, Lewis 1); GR 8 (Thompson 4, Edwards 2, Hood 1, Hill 1). Fouled out: J. Walker. JV–TZ wins 41-38.