By MIKE DAVIS
for the Daily Telegraph
RICHLANDS, Va. — The G-Men completed the trifecta Friday night when a road trip to the House of Blues turned into a 16-point win over the Blue Tornado.
Graham (3-0) turned up the intensity through four periods to win a non-district battle against rival Richlands, 72-56.
“We’ve played some really good teams this week and I’m proud of the kids effort,” Graham head coach Glynn Carlock. “We feel like our kids responded well in a hostile environment in an ex-district game and I think we played well.
“We try to pride ourselves in playing a lot of guys and we feel like if someone gets tired we put someone else in and keep pressing and get up and down the floor.”
The G-Men worked the ball around the horn and scored 25 points in the first quarter to set the tone early.
Playing like a fine-oiled machine, Tony Hood, Gray Baker and Tyler Thompson all his perimeter shots in the run and as a team, Graham was 5-of-8 at the free throw line in the first quarter to keep the bucket drained for the most part.
The Blue Tornado played much closer to the G-Men in the second frame with a 14-point effort compared to 15 points scored by Graham during the same span.
Still that first quarter jump start would haunt Richlands the rest of the night with the Blues adding 31 points in the second half as the G-Men would put up 33 to make the final tally.
“We were down 21 points at one point in the game and the kids came out and kept battling,” Richlands head coach Jody Fuller said. “I told the kids it’s going to be a roller coaster ride at the beginning of the season and we’ve only had five practices. I thought they kept their heads up.
“We kept battling at got the score to 10 points, but, Graham was just too deep. We don’t have our basketball legs yet, but, it’ll come. We’ll get there.”
Devon Johnson led Richlands with a game high 28 points including a 3-pointer and nine free throws in 15 tries. Johnson’s scoring supporters were far behind with seven and six points the only scoring numbers to aid the senior’s total output which came from Eric Harris and A.J. Johnson respectively.
The G-Men only had one player in double figure with Spencer Sheets scoring 10 points. However, nine Graham players scored points on the night. Colby Hill added nine while Baker finished with eight to shore up the effort by the G-Men.
Richlands will take on Mountain Mission tonight and Graham will play rival Bluefield on Monday at Graham Middle School. The Graham JV game will start at 5:30 p.m. and the varsity game will start at 6:45.

At Richlands Middle School
Graham..........................................25 15 11 21 — 72
Richlands......................................11 14 12 19 — 56