STATE EXTRA: Riverheads knocked out

RICHMOND – Riverheads lost 70-48 to Colonial Beach on Saturday in the Group A, Division 1 boys quarterfinals at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Siegel Center.

“These kids have nothing to be ashamed about,” Riverheads coach John Corbett said. “They [Colonial Beach] are just a great team, and have great athletes. We got behind early and you can’t do that against a team like this. They were the better team.”

The run-and-gun offense of Colonial Beach was anticipated by John Corbett and he tried to prepare his troops by molding a plan to slow the Drifters down. But the Red Pride had a hard time with the Drifters’ Tristan Carey and their 1-3-1 defensive scheme. Carey scored 16 points in the first half. He finished the game with 22 points.

“We knew it was going to be tough,” said junior Demetrius Younger. “But we didn’t want it bad enough and they did.”

Younger led the team with 14 points. Lyndon Humphries collected 10 points.

The Drifters started the first stanza by posting 19 points and suffocated the Gladiators’ offense with the half-court press. Riverheads had five turnovers and once Colonial Beach started running they never stopped.

The Drifters out-hustled the Gladiators, collecting 11 points in the first and Riverheads was limited to nine points in the second quarter.

The Red Pride endured a nine-point run in the second that it could not answer until the five-minute mark.

Riverheads’ Cody Montgomery and Demetrius Younger closed the gap after the team went scoreless deep into the second quarter, both making three-point plays. Younger added a basket to make it 32-20 in favor of the Drifters. Younger led Riverheads with nine points in the first half, but the squad was shutdown for the remainder of the second stanza. Colonial Beach closed the second quarter by leading 35-20.

“Once they got you at half-court, that was it,” Corbett said. “They are bigger than us and what happened was we were forced to pass. When we were down 12 to 15 points at the half, I thought we had a chance.”

The Drifters made the Gladiators work for every bucket. Riverheads’ Adam Ritter was the lone scorer in the third. Ritter went inside and forced a foul and added one point from the line to make it 44-24 Colonial Beach. Riverheads added two points from the line and Montgomery hit a 3. It was not enough and the Drifters stopped the surge and collected 14 points in the third to make it a 49-29 game.

Montgomery’s long baskets came up short. The junior was limited to six points on the night.

“We knew they had good shooters,” said Drifters coach Steve Swope. “I knew that the Montgomery kid, Young and that tall guard, [Lyndon] Humphries, were going to be tough. But we created our own transitions ... . We controlled the tempo from the beginning and that’s what we wanted to do.”

Another threat from the Drifters was Dylan Farinet. Farinet did not make too much noise in the first half, he collected six points. He made up for it shooting 7-10 from the line and amassing a total of 22 points.

Riverheads scored 19 points in the fourth.

The team was losing time in the fourth and trailing 46-70. Humphries drove the ball and penetrated the Drifters inside for a bucket to make it 48-70 with 23 seconds left. As time expired, the Gladiators’ season came to an abrupt end.