By GEORGE THWAITES
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, Va. — After Wednesday’s unanticipated road victory at Narrows, the Bland County girls basketball team might’ve built up a thirst for an even bigger upset.
Graham handled the threat by cutting the Lady Bears’ water off.
The G-Girls confined Bland County to only two second-quarter points, laying the foundation for a 68-36 non-conference win at Graham Middle School on Friday night.
“They’ve got some big players that play physical, and that worked to their advantage some. But they had a hard time running the floor with us,” observed Graham head coach Jessica Gunter.
“We’ve been focusing on our man-to-man defense ... we didn’t play as much of it last year. We’ve been working on shooting and passing lanes and taking care of the ball on the defensive end. It makes opportunities on the offensive end.”
Lexi Kiser scored 14 of her 25 game-high points for Graham (7-3), which led 14-12 after the first quarter but went into the locker room at intermission leading 32-14. Kiser also dished off for five assists and collected three steals.
Dejah Carter rounded up a double-double, scoring 11 points and bringing down an impressive 17 rebounds. Carly Moretto fired up 13 points, hitting a trio of treys for the G-Girls. She also distributed five assists. Brittney Tignor, Casey Spencer and Karrah Large all had steals for Graham.
The Lady Bears (4-9) were infused with confidence after taking a rare 69-56 win on the home court of Conference 45 rival Narrows. Playing their fourth game since this past Saturday, their legs were infused with lactic acid.
“I’m not upset with them because they’ve battled the flu and sinuses and they’re exhausted,” said Bland County coach Jason Lambert.
“Not to take anything away from Graham. Graham is a great team. But our legs weren’t there and we were mentally exhausted. We had seven turnovers (at Narrows). Tonight we had seven in the first quarter.”
The G-Girls, a 2A West program, were fresh off a 72-59 loss to crosstown rival Bluefield and in no mood to be trifled with.
“It’s all about the boxing out,” said Gunter. “We struggled against Bluefield last night so we really were pushing to make sure we made contact and were boxing out. We got to work on that tonight.”
Sydney Walker was the only Lady Bears player to score in double figures. She finished with 12.
“We looked at the game film from last night and it was a good learning experience for us. It gave us an opportunity to look at what needed fixed in our defensive sets. And we took care of it,” said Gunter, whose team doesn’t play again until facing Grayson County next Friday.
The Lady Bears aren’t done yet. They trudge off to Rural Retreat tonight, finishing a stretch of five games in eight days.

At Graham Middle School
BLAND COUNTY (4-9)
Malee Lambert 1 1-2 4, Sydney Cross 1 0-2 2, Lauren Gwyn 2 1-2 6, Macey Scott 2 0-0 4, Sydney Walker 3 6-12 12, Lakyn Patterson 1 2-2 4, Judy Sparks 0 0-2 0, Emma Pennington 2 0-2 4, Totals 12 10-24 36.
GRAHAM (7-3)
Lexi Kiser 9 6-8 25, Brittney Tignor 1 0-0 2, Kathryn Perdue 4 0-0 8, Caitlin Vance 1 0-0 2, Carly Moretto 5 0-0 13, Casey Spencer 0 0-0 0, McKenzie Rife 1 0-2 2, Karrah Large 1 3-6 5, Dejah Carter 27 10-18 68.
Bland County....12 2 14 8 — 36
Graham.............14 18 17 19 — 68
3-point goals: Bland County 2 (Lambert, Gwyn), Graham 4 (Kiser, Moretto 3).