By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
RICHLANDS, Va. — It seemed like Groundhog Day, over and over and over again.
It took nine days from when it was originally scheduled, and it was played on a Wednesday afternoon, but Richlands finally opened Southern Empire Conference tournament action, defeating Grayson County 86-66 at Richlands Middle School.
“Just everyday was like Groundhog Day. I think (this game) got canceled six times,” Richlands head boys coach Jody Fuller said. “Overall it was frustrating, the kids are just dying to play, they are excited to play a game and then you have got to try and practice and not let them have a letdown in practice because you don’t want to come in and be inefficient or create bad habits so it is tough.”
It wasn’t a problem in this one. Scottie Ball scored 20 points and Cody Fuller added 15, and Richlands never trailed, building a 45-27 lead at the break. Landon Lowe and Ethan Ratliff added nine points each, and 11 of 13 Blues got on the board.
Any hopes of a comeback were dashed by a trio of third quarter 3s by Ratliff. Fuller also had three 3s for Richlands, which finished with eight.
“We were trying to get a lot of kids involved,” Fuller said. “We come out with some good energy early, and then I thought we sort of winged a little bit in the third quarter and I sort of got aggravated. Overall, that is sort of what you expect after a two-week layoff.”
Grayson County (3-20) was led by Bailey Hawkins, who had a game-high 27 points, while Isaac Flippin added 11, including three from long range.
“They are tough, they are well coached, they do a great job of mixing their defenses up a little bit,” Grayson County head coach Lucas Austin said. “They have a lot of offensive weapons, and they made shots today
“We tried to press them in the second half trying to get something going and they must have hit 4 or 5 3s in the third quarter and they buried us.”
Up next for Richlands (10-14) is Graham tonight — weather permitting — at 7:30 p.m., with the season on the line at Tazewell Middle School. The Blues have lost twice to the G-Men by 11 and 25 points.
“It is an elimination game, they are tough, we have not beat them yet,” Fuller said. “I think earlier in the year (Graham) Coach (Glynn) Carlock said something to the effect that we were the team to beat, and I said you have got to beat the man to be the man and we have never beat them.
“They are obviously very good, they have got all the tools. It is a very tough match-up for us. We are going to go and give it our best shot, but they have got all the tools, they are very tough.”
Tonight’s winner will play either Marion or Grundy in Friday’s finals, and will also earn a berth into next week’s Region 2A West tournament, which will be held at Tazewell and Richlands middle schools.

at Richlands Middle School
GRAYSON COUNTY (3-20)
Kobe Hill 1 5-6 7, Brandon Paschal 1 3-4 5, Bailey Hawkins 10 5-5 27, William Vaughan 2 0-0 4, Brent Hawks 0 2-4 2, Dylan Martin 0 1-2 1, Brett Pope 1 0-0 2, Tyler Lundy 1 1-2 3, Isaac Flippin 3 2-2 11, Seth Phillips 1 2-4 4, Garrett Moore 0 0-2 0, Aaron Groves 0 0-0 0, Jordan Bailey 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 21-31
RICHLANDS (10-14)
Luke Phillips 3 0-1 6, Cody Fuller 6 0-0 15, Ethan Ratliff 3 0-0 9, Scottie Ball 9 2-3 20, Landon Lowe 2 5-9 9, Grant Herndon 1 5-6 7, Will Moir 1 2-2 5, Austin Atkinson 0 3-4 3, MacKenzie Smith 0 0-4 0, Ben Thomason 1 5-7 7, Brennan Richardson 1 0-0 3, Caleb Altizer 1 0-1 2, Luke Herndon 0 0-2 0. Totals 28 22-39 86.
Grayson County............11 16 11 28 — 66
Richlands.......................18 27 20 21 — 86
3-point goals: GC 5 (Flippen 3, Hawkins 2); RL 8 (Fuller 3, Ratliff 3, Moir 1, Richardson 1). Total fouls: GC 22; RL 20. Fouled out: Moir. Technicals: none.