By ELIZA EVANS
for the Daily Telegraph
ROSE RIDGE, Va. — The Ridgeview Wolfpack defeated Graham, 68-48, in the first round of the Region 2A West girls basketball tournament Monday night.

Ridgeview was led by Kayla Mullins with 30 points. Bailey Frazier was next with 19.

Graham held a 13-12 lead after the first quarter. But Ridgeview refused to stay down at home.

“We definitely came out in the second quarter and said we can’t let them score 13 points every quarter. We’re going to have step up and make some stops,” Mullins said.

Frazier’s basket 16 seconds into the period gave Ridgeview back the lead, 14-13.

Twenty seconds later, Frazier put Ridgeview up by three, 16-13, as part of a 20-3 run in the second quarter. Mullins scored nine of Ridgeveiw’s points during that time.

By halftime, the Wolfpack had a commanding 32-16 lead.

We struggled a little bit, but we came back and tried to play our hardest,” Bailey Frazier said.

Ridgeview head coach Donnie Frazier said when his team stopped settling for outside shots and starting going inside, the tide turned.

“We were able to spread the floor and attack the basket,” Frazier said. “We didn’t settle for jump shots. We settled for some jump shots early. They went to man defense, came out of that zone for a minute, as soon as they did, we started shooting layups.”

Graham head coach Jessica Gunter said the Ridgeview offense found holes in her team’s defense during the explosive second quarter.

“We had some defensive breakdowns, just got out of position to some extent,” Gunter said. “We lost our back-side help and they slipped some in on us in the second quarter. I think that’s what gave them a little bump going into halftime.”

The Wolfpack held a double-digit lead from the 3:13 mark in the second quarter until Dejah Carter got a basket inside to make the score 39-30 with 1:05 left in the third quarter.

Carter finished the night with a team-high 17 points for Graham (13-8).

But again, Mullins had the answer for Ridgeview, knocking down a 3-point 20 seconds later for a 42-30 Ridgeview lead.

The Wolfpack led 43-32 going into the final period.

Mulins picked up her fourth foul with 5:03 left in the game and her Wolfpack leading by 14, 51-37.

But Graham was not able to get the deficit back into single digits with Mullins on the bench.

Lexi Kiser also scored in double figures for Graham with 10 points.

Up next for Ridgeview is Floyd County on Wednesday.

“This isn’t our first rodeo. We’ve played some good teams and now we’re going to play another one in Floyd,” Frazier said. “We’ve got to be ready for their aggressive trapping and pressing defenses. Just got to be able to recognize which one they’re in, get our people where they need to be and take it from there.”

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Eliza Evans writes for the Coalfield Progress.

At Rose Ridge

GRAHAM

Kiser 10, Tigner 2, Vance, Moretto 9, Spencer 6, Large, Carter 17.

RIDGEVIEW

I. Gulley 6, Fletcher 5, Coleman, Mullins 30, Frazier 19, Sutherland 2, Counts 4, Phillips 2.

Graham.......................13 3 16 16 — 48

Ridgeview...................12 20 11 25 — 68

3-point goals: Graham 4 (Moretto 3, Kiser); Ridgeview 3 (Mullins 3).