By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
TAZEWELL, Va. — The goal is still alive for the Lady Blues.
Montana Hearl scored 16 points, Olivia Harmon added 14, and Richlands survived a foul-plagued contest with a 57-43 Southern Empire Conference (39) semifinal win over Graham on Friday evening at Tazewell Middle School.
Richlands (13-12), which won the inaugural Conference 39 title last season, will look for a second straight SEC title tonight against Grayson County (22-1), which hasn’t lost to a Virginia team this year.
“Grayson County has got a tough team, they have only lost one game the whole year,” Richlands head coach Dennis Palmer said. “They have got a real good team, their coach does a great job, they are well coached, they play hard. We are going to have to play real well to beat them.”
Foul trouble proved problematic for both teams, with five players with three fouls at the break, including Graham’s 6-foot center Dejah Carter, and Richlands’ ballhandlers Harmon and Hearl.
Only Hearl wound up fouling out, but numerous players had four fouls at the end of the game.
Graham (12-11), which was led by Lexi Kiser with 17 points and Carter with 14 points and 13 rebounds, led 16-9 after one quarter, but struggled before the break, with Richlands tying the score at 20 on an offensive putback by Seania Overton and took the lead for good on a basket by Harmon.
Richlands, which led 22-21 at halftime, was led by Hearl with 16 points, 14 from Harmon, and eight by Lani Rinehardt.
“We had a little talk at halftime that we have one half to move on,” Palmer said. “Our goal has always been to win the conference championship so we had one half to do it and we came out and played real well in the second half.”
Carter was challenged throughout by an aggressive defense that received a lift from Overton and Hayleigh Whited, who also combined to score 12 points and controlled the boards when Carter wasn’t in the game.
“They did a good job of boxing her out,” Palmer said. “We tried to play behind her and make her shoot over the top. We wanted to attack her this time, make her play some defense, which we didn’t do last time. That was one of our strategies was to try and attack her and make her play.”
A 3 and drive to the basket by Hearl pushed Richlands ahead 27-21 to open the second half before the G-Girls trimmed the margin to two on baskets by Kiser and Casey Spencer, who had seven points for Graham.
That is when Ericah Burton consecutive 3s, building the lead back 33-25, and the G-Girls never got closer than six the rest of the way.
“Those were big shots right there,” Palmer said.
“The difference in the game for us is they hit some 3s tonight and we didn’t when it comes down to the bottom line...,” added Graham coach Chris Southcott. “She missed three of those same shots in the first half right in front of our bench, sometimes it comes down to a game of makes and misses and X’s and O’s don’t mean a whole lot.”
Much like in the third period, the Lady Blues jumped on Graham in the final quarter, going on a 8-3 run, including a 3 by Rinehardt, who not only trailed Kiser all over the floor, but also handled the ball when Hearl and Harmon were out with foul trouble.
“We put Lani on their best player and she did a great job tonight,” Palmer said. “She kind of shut her down, a lot of those (17 points) came at the foul line too. Lani played some good defense there and we just made some other people take some shots....
“We got in big time foul trouble...We moved to Lani to the point guard and she did a good job of handling the ball, moving the ball and actually hit a 3 and hit a couple of shots to help us.”
Graham could never get closer than nine from that point to finish the season with a 12-11 record.
“Absolutely, I told the girls I couldn’t have been more proud with our hustle and our heart and our attitude tonight, it epitomizes what we have been trying to work on all year with them,” Southcott said. “Just working on those things, the camaraderie , the teammanship and the overall attitude was just something that if we could do that every second of every moment that we are on the floor between now and all of next season, then we are not going to be in this situation next year.”
Richlands, which made three straight state tournament appearances prior to last season, qualified for next week’s Region 2A West tourney, but these Lady Blues have their eyes on the SEC first.
“It is a big deal though, if you win that one you get to play at home, if you lose you have got to travel,” Palmer said. “It is a big deal and we want to win the conference championship, that is a big deal to us.”

at Tazewell Middle School
RICHLANDS (13-12)
Montana Hearl 5 4-6 16, Lani Rinehardt 3 1-2 8, Seania Overton 2 1-3 5, Amber Street 0 1-3 1, Olivia Harmon 5 4-7 14, Hayleigh Whited 3 1-2 7, Ericah Burton 2 0-0 6. Totals 20 12-20 57.
GRAHAM (12-11)
Lexi Kiser 5 4-7 17, Caitlin Vance 0 0-0 0, Casey Spencer 2 2-4 7, Christina Mounzer 1 2-4 4, Dejah Carter 7 0-2 14, Taylor Webb 0 0-1 0, Miranda Hagerman 0 0-0 0, McKenzie Riffe 0 1-2 1, Karrah Large 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 9-20 43.
Richlands.......................9 13 13 22 — 57
Graham.........................16 5 6 16 — 43
3-point goals: RL 5 (Hearl 2, Burton 2, Rinehardt 1); GR 3 (Kiser 2, Spencer 1). Total fouls: RL 18; GR 20. Fouled out: Hearl. Technicals: none.