By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
TAZEWELL, Va. — Next man up. For Graham on this night, it was Roman Workman.
The Graham junior scored 22 points, including seven in the first quarter and 14 at the break, and the G-Men were never threatened, defeating Grundy 63-46 to capture their second straight Southern Empire Conference (39) championship on Saturday night at Tazewell Middle School.
Workman had been held to four points in Graham's semifinal win over Richlands the previous night. There were no such issues in this one.
"I just tried to come out with a lot more energy than I did last night," Workman said. "I came out a little slow last night so I just tried to get my game back together and come out stronger. I was trying to hustle a little bit, and I was just trying to do what I had to do to win."
He will do the same on Monday when Graham (22-2) plays host to Gate City in the Region 2A West quarterfinals at Graham Middle School in a win-or-go home scenario for both teams.
"Gate City has a really good team, a tough team so we are just going to try to match their toughness and play hard, that is all we can do," Workman said. "We have got them home so that is better than going to Gate City so we will take it. We are excited about it."
Grundy (16-11), which committed seven turnovers in the opening 3:24 and fell behind 21-9 after one quarter, will visit Virginia High on Monday.
"The whole point of everything was not get behind early and that is exactly what happened," Grundy head coach Brian Moore said. "We had like seven turnovers in the first four minutes and didn't adjust well to the pressure."
That pressure continued throughout the early part of the game, with the G-Men forcing 12 first half turnovers and going 16 for 29 from the field to build a 36-22 lead at the break.
Workman had 14 points as the break, while Tony Hood had nine and Colby Hill added eight, and finished the game with 20 points.
"I felt like we were able to get out and establish an early lead," Graham head coach Glynn Carlock Jr. said. "In a championship atmosphere I felt like we did what we wanted to do tonight, which is what your goal is.
"We eventually got them to come out and guard us a little bit in the second half and we were able to extend away."
Defensively, Graham focused on containing high-scoring Charles "Bub" McCoy, who joined teammate Baylen Dillow with 17 points apiece, but McCoy, especially, had to work extra hard to get on the board.
"I thought we did a pretty good job containing (McCoy) for sure," Carlock said. "We just wanted to deny him the touch, deny him the catch, we didn't want him to catch the ball...
"I thought it got him a little bit frustrated early and then it took him a while to get established and get in his groove. All in all, I am really proud of our defensive effort tonight on those guys and getting out and running the floor a little bit."
A basket and free throw by McCoy narrowed the margin to 26-17 with 5:13 left in the second period, but Hood followed with a drive to the basket and the G-Men never let the Golden Wave get the margin back to single digits.
"I felt like as the game progressed we got a little bit better, but we couldn't get in the halfcourt and run anything," said Moore, who is the fourth Grundy head coach in the last four years. "Our backcourt wasn't doing really well and we got a little rattled, That happens."
Consecutive 3s by Hill and Workman, who combined for 18 of Graham's 20 third quarter points, pushed the margin to 18 coming out of the break, and the lead was still there going to the final period.
Workman had three of Graham's five 3s, while Hill had the other two.
"If you focus too much on somebody penetrating, they are just going to kick it out on you," Moore said. "We packed it in a little bit and they found the open guy and they knocked their shots down.
"I thought Workman was actually the one that killed us early on in the game, he played really well."
That was the plan. Hood had led the G-Men past Richlands the previous night with 30 points. It was Workman's turn to step up against the Wave.
"He is just a tough-nosed kid, he does everything, he is a hustler, the last two nights he has been in foul trouble, and he is able to fight through and still help us score," Carlock said. "We have got a lot of good players on this team that can do things and somebody steps up when you have to have them step up.
"The other ones are able to give up the spotlight a little bit if they are not on. Tonight it was Roman's night, Tony had a big night for us last night and followed up tonight just kind of directing the show."
Up next for Graham is regional play, with two wins needed to earn a berth in the regional finals and the Group 2A state tournament that begins on March 9 in Richmond. Of course, there is lots of work left for the G-Men, beginning with Gate City.
"We have got our work cut out for us on Monday, but it is win or go home," said Carlock, whose G-Men hadn't played for two weeks prior to Friday's win over Richlands. "At this stage you want to be playing your best ball and given the layoff circumstances and the obstacles that we face, I have been proud of the way our team has played the last two nights.
"Let's just load it up and hopefully get a gym full of people from Bluefield Virginia to watch the G-Men on Monday."

at Tazewell Middle School
GRUNDY (16-11)
Ethan Duty 0 0-0 0, Charles McCoy 7 3-6 17, Jordan McCoy 2 0-0 5, Christian Jackson 2 0-0 5, Baylen Dillow 5 6-6 17, Dylan Wolford 1 0-0 2, Gavin Cheek 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 9-12 46.
GRAHAM (22-2)
Tony Hood 4 1-1 9, Roman Workman 8 3-4 22, Thomas Clarke 0 0-0 0, Colby Hill 9 0-0 20, Tanner Miller 1 1-1 3, Nick Morgan 2 0-0 4, Garrett Dalton 2 0-0 4, Taymon Cooke 0 1-2 1, Chris Jones 0 0-0 0, Israel Harris 0 0-0 0, Jacob Simpson 0 0-0 0, Nick Shoemaker 0 0-0 0, Logan Surface 0 0-0 0, Emil Curto 0 0-0 0, DeQuan Booker 0 0-0 0. Totals 26 6-8 63.
Grundy..................................9 13 10 14 — 46
Graham.................................21 15 20 7 — 63
3-point goals: GU 3 (J.McCoy 1, Jackson 1, Dillow 1); GR 5 (Workman 3, Hill 2). Total fouls: GU 6; Gr 14. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.