Bland County Bears player reaches milestone

By JERRY SCOTT/Correspondent

Graham’s Colby Hill drilled a three-pointer with 23 seconds to play to give his team the lead and provided cushion with two free throws 15 seconds later as Graham held on to tack a 68-64 loss on homestanding Bland County on Feb. 3. The win came despite Graham blowing all of a 16-point third quarter lead to the point that it even trailed with 44 seconds on the clock.

Graham improved to 4-4 in the MED and 9-10 overall with the win. The Bears missed out on their second golden opportunity of the season to defeat the G-Men and fell to 2-6, 10-9. Bland County lost to the G-Men in overtime in their game in Bluefield.

Hill finished with 23 points for the winning G-Men, the only Graham player in twin figure scoring. Spencer Sheets came off the bench for eight points as all 11 players that played scored for Graham.

Graham scored the game’s first seven points and enjoyed a 10-2 lead on Tony Hood’s three-pointer with just under three minutes gone in the game. Four foul shots among six points by the Bears’ Chase Hankins helped keep the home team close early on and his wing jumper with 38 seconds left in the first quarter drew the Bears to within 15-13.

Asher Dillow, who eclipsed the 1,000-career point plateau with a floater in the lane at the 2:18 mark, added a pair of free shots with two seconds left as the Bears held their first lead at 16-15. Two Gabe Hurt foul shots for Graham after the buzzer restored the lead back to the G-Men 17-16.

Bland County’s Darryl Clark arched in a trey that knotted the game 19-19 and a Clark steal moments later set up the first of five Dillow trifectas as Bland County held a 22-19 edge with just under six minutes left before the halftime intermission. Another Dillow trey at 4:20 kept the Bears in front 25-21.

Graham retied the game on a Sheets three with 3:50 to go as well as a Sheets free shot at 3:15 before going back on top 27-25 when Zach Proffitt rebounded an Andrew Day miss for two points. A stick back from Day and a three-point play from Hill at 1:14 left Graham up 32-26. The first of four Hill three-pointers with 33 seconds left helped push Graham into the break in front 35-30.

Hill scored on a baseline cutter to open the third period and added two free throws with 5:56 left to ignite a 10-0 burst that enabled Graham to hold a 47-31 lead by the 2:22 mark. Consecutive threes by Hankins and Dillow for the Bears sliced the deficit to 47-37 and Dillow again scored just before the buzzer that kept the Bears in arrears 49-39.

After the G-Men took a 51-39 lead on two Gray Baker foul shots, Dillow launched a trey at 7:06 to play that kicked off a 13-6 run to sever the gap to 57-52 , his hard drive and ensuing free throw at 3:36 making it a 57-52 game. Graham’s Corey Coppola scored a pair from the stripe as Graham led 59-52 but Hankins leaned into the Graham defense for a bucket, getting fouled for the three-point play at 3:01 to make it 59-55. A three from Clark less than a minute later pulled the Bears to 59-57 before four points from Tyler White, including a bomb with 1:19 put Bland County up 61-59, their first lead since the midpoint of the second period.

Hill then arced a three of his own seconds later as Graham recaptured the lead 62-61 with 1:02 left. Two free throws from Dillow with 44 seconds left had the Bears up 63-62, their final lead.

Just as he did when the two teams met back on Jan. 14, Hill again broke the Bears’ backs with a game-winning three-pointer. He aired it up from long range with 23 seconds left, getting nothing but net to put Graham up 65-63. Following a miss by the Bears’ Clark with nine seconds left, Hill then aced two from the line as Graham led 67-63.

Dillow finished with 29 points to push his career total to 1,028. His five three-pointers gave him 59 for the season, a new Bland County record and breaking his own mark of 55 from last season. Hankins added 13 points and Clark chipped in 12 more.

The Bears’ JV lost to Graham 47-35 back on Jan. 14. This time around was a little different.

With four players scoring in double digits, Bland County came out the winner by a 55-38 tally, a 17-5 third quarter onslaught breaking open a 22-18 Bland County halftime lead. Shae Meadows canned 10 of 13 foul shots en route to a 13-point night for the winner, now 10-9 on the season. Kalub Lambert drained three trifectas and added 12 points, just ahead of 11 from Tyler Faulkner and 10 from Zach Gwyn. As a team, the Bears went 21-33 from the foul line.

Roman Workman led all scorers for Graham with 14 points but that was pretty much it. Jon Figueror tallied eight points.