AM
Lady Blues dash to victory over Graham
Graham (36) Vs. Richlands (55)
Dec 07, 2012
By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, Va. — When Richlands needed a spark when Graham was closing in, the Lady Blues got a lift from their senior leader.
Cassidy Richardson led Richlands on a 19-7 run over the final 9:59 of the game, as the Blue Tornado pulled away from Graham for a 55-36 non-district win over Friday night at Graham Middle School.
Richlands (2-0), which advanced to the Division 3 state semifinals last season, improved to 2-0 and will host Graham on Wednesday. That will be followed with four tournament games at Virginia High, and a contest against Honaker two days later.
“We have to turn around and play them on Wednesday next week...” Richlands head coach Dennis Palmer said. “We are going to play five games in six days so we will be real busy.”
Richardson paced Richlands with 16 points, including a pair of steals in the backcourt late in the third quarter, which she turned into baskets with drives to the hoops. Richardson wound up with 12 of her club’s final 22 points over the last 12:37 of the gam, and also had a pair of assists on nifty bases in the lane during the same timeframe.
“That is Cassie’s job as a point guard. It is her job to settle everyone down and get everybody set and get up and down, but Cass can put it on the floor and shoot the ball too,” Richlands head coach Dennis Palmer said. “Even though she is a point guard she can score too.”
Montana Hearl added 13 points for Richlands, including 9- of-9 from the free throw line, and Brittany Allen tossed in 10 points. The Lady Blues, which played without senior center Rachel Alley who is nursing a sore hamstring, was 18- of-23 from the charity stripe, including 8-9 in the opening period, taking a 22-9 lead into the second quarter.
Graham trailed 31-19 at the break, and were still down 36-19 on a 3 by Richardson with 5:11 to go in the third period when the G- Girls went on a 10-0 run, led by three baskets in the lane by Erin Wilson.
That cut the margin to 36:29 with 1:59 on the clock.
“It is one of those I struggle with who to start because one game one will come in and do this, but either way you need players to come off the bench like that and put up some numbers,” Graham head coach Tracy Raban said. “She is hard to handle being with her left hand and being a big body.
“I felt like she stepped it up, especially when we were closing the gap on them. She stepped up big for us”
However, Graham wouldn’t score another field goal until the final seconds by Ashley Rasnake.
“I was really pleased with our effort after hearing how good they are,” Raban said. “I am not taking anything away from Richlands, I thought our girls came out and fought.
“We took a couple of possessions there and we were able to close the gap, but we lost our concentration for a few minutes and focus of our game plan that could have got us to the top. They had a couple of ‘and- ones’ and the gap was gone before you knew it.
“Overall I can’t be disappointed in our effort and how we ended up with the game tonight.”
Emaleigh Gallinger led the G- Girls with 12 points, with 11 of those coming before the break, and she had both of Graham’s 3point goals. Wilson and Bethany Evans added six points each for Graham. Rasnake and Morgan had five apiece.
Richlands jumped out on 10-0 lead, paced a 3 by MaKenley Davis, four free throws from Hearl and oldfashioned 3-play play by Allen. Davis had two of the Blues’ three 3s in the game.
Graham finally got on the board with a free throw by Karly Morgan with 4:50 on the clock, but the G- Girls could never get closer than seven points.
Palmer wasn’t pleased with the sloppiness shown by his club, but much of that came from the defense of the G- Girls.
“I thought after the first two minutes of the game we played really, really sloppy,” Palmer said. “Tracy does a great job with her girls, they play hard and they get after you and they had a lot to do with that.”

at Graham Middle School
RICHLANDS (2-0)
Montana Hearl 2 9-9 13, MaKenley Davis 2 1-2 7, Cassidy Richardson 6 3-3 16, Brittany Allen 3 4-5 10, Sarah Compton 1 02 2, Nadia Ashig 2 1-2 5, Paxton Casey 1 02, Hannah Alley 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 18-23 55.
GRAHAM (4-2)
Karly Morgan 1 3-4 5, Erin Wilson 3 0-0 6, Alysia Leung 0 0-0 0, Emaleigh Gallinger 4 2-3 12, Bethany Evans 2 2-4 6, Ashley Rasnake 2 1-4 5, Ashley Moretto 0 0-1 0, Carolyn Springman 0 0-0 0, Bailee Poe 0 00 0, Taylor Williams 1 0-0 2. Totals 13 8-16 36.
Richlands...............22 9 9 15 — 55
Graham....................9 10 10 7 — 36
3-point goals: RL 3 (Davis 2, Richardson 1); GR 2 (Gallinger 2). Total fouls: RL 18, GR 15. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none. JV: Richlands won.
Nightly Roundup
Game Scoreboard
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 OT SCORE
Graham 9 10 10 7 0 36
Richlands 22 9 9 15 0 55
Home | Game Schedules | Archive Coverage
Player of the Week | Bounce Blog | Memorable Matchups
www.BDTBounce.com
Copyright © BDTBounce.com
All rights reserved. Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form.
Site Designed By: MotionLX, LLC