Statesmen reach regional semis
Published 6:41 pm Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Randolph-Henry High School’s varsity boys basketball team has taken the Region 2A tournament by storm, orchestrating blowout victories in the first and quarterfinal rounds to reach the semifinals where it will face off against No. 1 Goochland High School for the fourth time this season.
To open their regional run Friday, the No. 2 Statesmen defeated visiting No. 7 Amelia County High School 75-38.
Randolph-Henry Head Coach James Graves noted the game was not close at any juncture after the opening tipoff.
“We jumped out to a 30-5 lead after one quarter,” he said. “Tremaine Pugh had 12 of his game-high 25 in the first quarter.”
The Statesmen led 45-15 at halftime.
Senior guard Nasheim Pettus finished with 17 points, senior guard Jordan Jones had 13 and junior guard Masud Benu had 12.
In the quarterfinals Monday, Randolph-Henry played No. 3 Bluestone High School for the fourth time this season after winning its first three contests against the Barons by an average of 10.3 points. The Statesmen saved their best for last, routing visiting Bluestone 104-72 on Monday.
“Obviously this was a fast-paced game,” Graves said. “We jumped out to an early lead, 28-15 after one. We stretched that lead to 56-31.”
He noted that the Barons came out aggressively in the third quarter and cut the lead to 17 points — 73-56.
“It got pretty ‘hairy’ in the third quarter,” Graves said. “We got things back together in the fourth and cruised to the win. That is a four-game sweep of a very good Bluestone team this year.”
Jones led the Statesmen with 35 points, Pettus had 27 and Pugh had 15.
After beating the Bulldogs 73-55 in the district tournament title game Feb. 12, the Statesmen (18-6) will look to improve to 3-1 against Goochland at 6 p.m. Wednesday on the road.