By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
RICHLANDS, Va. -- Once the Richlands Lady Blues settled down, the contest with county rival Tazewell was in their hands. Those hands crafted a 76-34 runaway on Friday night in front of a large crowd at Richlands Middle School.
The Lady Bulldogs scored the game's first five points, But Richlands answered with the next 14, running off to a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Working the boards and finding the open player, the Lady Blues continued to pour it on for a 36-12 lead at halftime.
"We started a little slow," said Richlands head coach Dennis Palmer, "but then we got on our break a little bit. We passed well, we moved the ball well, we finished layups."
"I thought we played real good defense the first half," he said. "Our defense was a little sloppy in the second half."
Richlands reeled off 16 straight points in the game's final 3:10 and forged their biggest lead, 44 points, when Olivia Harmon scored a transition basket with 35 seconds to go.
Gracey Cline then scored Tazewell's final four points right after that. The junior guard finished with 17 points, including all four of the Lady Bulldogs' 3-pointers.
Harmon collected nine of Richlands' 28 baskets and led the scoring with 20 points. She also provided six assists.
Nadia Ashiq, recovering from injury, had eight assists and Erica Burton had four. Hayleigh Whited cleared 12 rebounds and Seania Overton added six boards.
As a team, Richlands had 51 rebounds, 18 assists and 17 steals.
"Our girls are always up to play Tazewell," Palmer said.

At Richlands Middle School
TAZEWELL (1-13)
Gracey Cline 5 3-4 17, Shaynah McNulty 1 2-2 4, Karlee Wasilewski 1 2-2 4, Megan White 1 1-2 3, Angeline White 2 0-0 4. Totals 10 8-11 34.
RICHLANDS (5-6)
Nadia Ashiq 1 0-2 2, Jasmine Hess 5 0-0 11, Lani Rinehart 4 2-6 12, Ericah Burton 3 1-6 9, Seania Overton 5 2-5 12, Olivia Harmon 9 1-7 20, Kendra Humphrey 1 0-0 2, Hayleigh Whited 4 0-6 8. Totals 28 6-32 76.
Tazewell.......................7 5 10 12 -- 34
Richlands...................14 22 14 26 -- 76
3-point goals -- THS 4 (Cline 4); RHS 6 (Rinehart 2, Burton 2, Hess 1, Harmon 1). Fouled out -- none.