By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
TAZEWELL, Va. — On Senior Night for Tazewell, the Richlands Blue Tornado swept into town with no seniors on their roster, and beat the Bulldogs 99-56 on Friday.
The Blues, who never trailed, ended the first quarter on a 17-3 run to dispel the tension that coach Jody Fuller felt before tipoff.
“It’s one of those rivalries, and you never know what’s going to happen, so you’re always nervous about coming in here,” Fuller said.
“They came in and played with a little bit of energy. We had a tough game (Thursday) night with Bluefield and I was worried about us playing back-to-back.”
“The energy level didn’t quite meet what I was wanting, but we shot the ball well, and then the energy came in the second half.”
By halftime, Cody Fuller had 18 points, Landon Lowe had nine rebounds, and the Blue Tornado had a 58-29 lead, outscoring their hosts 12-1 in the final three minutes of the second quarter.
Tazewell first-year head coach J’me Harris said, “We still are a work in progress, defensively. We’re just a poor defensive team ... and it’s mainly because we’re real young.”
The coach began the game by letting all five seniors get a start. “It was senior night, so we honored the five seniors we have,” he said. “Two of them, it was their first start of the year, so they were excited about that.”
One of those seniors, Juwan Jordan, scored 10 points in each half to lead Tazewell. Harris said, “We still are a work in progress, defensively. We’re just a poor defensive team ... and it’s mainly because we’re real young.”
“Juwan’s our offense,” Harris said. “We go as he goes. We’re a little young, other than that, so we depend on him to do pretty much everything at the offensive end.”
After coronation ceremonies for Tazewell at halftime, Richlands picked up where they left off in the third quarter, and held a 40-point or more lead for much of the rest of the game.
With reserve players on the floor, the final minute was a frenzy that included four missed shots, steals by Richlands’ Austin Atkinson and Tazewell’s Clifford McPeak, and a jumper from Caleb Altizer to conclude the scoring.
Lowe finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds, while Cody Fuller nailed four 3-pointers and had 20 points.
“I like to come out with intensity,” Lowe said. “I just wanted to hit the floor running, and not let them get up too far, because if they did, then they could just keep running, with momentum.”
Jody Fuller said, “Landon’s a monster inside, and when he plays with a lot of energy, he’s really tough to handle down there when he goes for the ball.”
Cody Fuller said, “Everybody wants to play their best game against Tazewell. We try to come out here and do our thing (and) let everything fall into place.”
“My teammates just always do a good job of getting the ball to the shooters — not just me.”
Tazewell’s Nick Elkins led the Bulldogs with nine rebounds.
Jody Fuller said, “We’ve had a couple of tough losses, and losing’s tough. It starts to affect your mental status a little bit. So you need a win like this, getting ready for the (conference) tournament, (to) get a little bounce back into your step.”
Cody Fuller said, “We struggled, the last couple of games, but we finally got a good win, against a rival, and hopefully we’ve got us some good momentum.”
Tazewell will play Lebanon in a makeup game next Friday. Richlands hosts Twin Valley on Monday.
— Contact Tom Bone at
tbone@bdtonline.com;
Twitter @BDTBone

At Tazewell Middle School
RICHLANDS (8-13)
Ethan Ratliff 2 2-2 8, Cody Fuller 7 2-2 20, Luke Phillips 2 0-0 5, Scottie Ball 7 3-5 17. Landon Lowe 5 2-4 12, Grant Herndon 4 0-0 9, Will Moir 2 2-5 7, MacKenzie Smith 2 1-2 5, Austin Atkinson 2 4-5 9, Caleb Altizer 1 0-0 2, Luke Herndon 2 1-2 5. Totals 36 17-27 99.
TAZEWELL (0-23)
Nick Elkins 2 0-4 5, Sydney Willis 1 0-0 2, Juwan Jordan 8 1-2 20, Gee Tucker 1 0-3 2, Dakota Griffith 2 0-2 4, Ben Samiengo 1 3-8 5, T.J. Kitts 3 2-3 9, Dakota Crouse 2 1-2 5, Jason watson 1 0-0 2, Clifford McPeak 1 0-0 2. Totals 22 7-24 56.
Richlands..................33 25 21 20 — 99
Tazewell.....................14 15 16 11 — 56
3-point goals — Richl 10 (Ratliff 2, Fuller 4, Phillips 1, Herndon 1, Moir 1, Atkinson 1); Taz 5 (Elkins 1, Jordan 3, Kitts 1). Total fouls — Richl 19, Taz 17. Fouled out — none.