Dan River boys fall short in bid for state title

RICHMOND — Dan River coach Jacob Gruse sat motionless on a cooler in the locker room just moments after the Wildcats’ 77-69 loss to Radford in the Group A Division 2 state championship game.

The fourth-year coach finally found the words to say, but it was not the post-game speech he wanted to give after his team came just short on the game’s biggest stage.

Wildcats senior Darren White scored 36 points but Radford shot the lights out from 3-point range — finishing with 10 3-pointers — and held off every Dan River run as the Bobcats claimed their second state championship on Saturday at the Siegel Center on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University.

“I’m going to have nightmares about them shooting 3s tonight, I think I really am,” Gruse said. “They just kept coming and coming and coming. It’s incredible.”
Radford (26-4) came out shooting well early and never stopped. The Bobcats hit seven 3-pointers in the first half. During a stretch that spanned more than 4½ minutes, five of the team’s six made field goals were from downtown.

That stretch, which ended in the third quarter, saw the Bobcats’ lead balloon to 54-39, the largest of the game.

Dan River (24-5) clawed back in the fourth quarter. After falling behind 63-49, the Wildcats responded with a 14-5 run that cut the deficit to 68-63 with a tad more than 3 minutes remaining. White scored 10 points in that run and scored 16 of the team’s 20 fourth-quarter points.

The 6-foot-4 guard, who has committed to play Division I basketball at James Madison next season, shot 9-of-13 from the floor in the final period and finished 17-of-26. White’s 17 field goals are the second most made in Dan River state history, one behind Clarence Dickerson’s 18 in the Wildcats’ 1977 semifinal loss to Blacksburg.

“It was really difficult to get some hustle plays and put it all out on the floor and then get that close and they just make it that much farther away from us,” White said after adding nine rebounds. “They frustrated us, a lot.”

The Bobcats answered right back with a pair of Allen Dickerson baskets and Radford sealed the deal with free throws down the stretch. White made his final high school shot with a floater in the middle of the lane that dropped with 8.2 seconds left.

DeAndre Thompson hit three of his five 3-pointers in the game-defining stretch and finished with 20 points. Dickerson paced Radford with 22 points. Jon Thompson added 18 and Dontae Carter poured in 10. That quartet scored all but seven of the Bobcats’ points.

Radford point guard Scotty Hendricks set a Group A state tournament record with 13 assists. The Bobcats finished with 19 assists on 28 baskets.

“I said before the game that I was going to do anything I could to make sure we won the game,” DeAndre Thompson said. “I tried to go out and find my stroke early. I did and my shots just started dropping.”

Reggie Stone added 13 points and five steals for the Wildcats. Darell Adams contributed nine points and 10 rebounds and Charles Warren added six boards.
Dan River never led in the contest and only tied the game once when the score was knotted at 2-2. On several occasions, the Wildcats cut the lead to less than five but were never able to get closer.

“We started putting pressure on them in the second half and I felt that really turned. We were just right there and we could never get over that hump,” Gruse said. “I really felt like if we could tie the ball game in the second half or take the lead, we could take over the game. Coming uphill all day long and all night long is just so hard.”

Radford shot 51.4 percent from the floor in the first half and finished at 47.5 percent for the game. The Wildcats shot 15-for-38 from the floor in both halves, finishing at 39.5 percent for the game.

Dan River held a rebounding edge at 46-39, but only converted six of the team’s 25 offensive re-bounds into points.

“I think I’d love to be a fan watching that game with the way it was up and down,” Radford coach Rick Cormany said. “I think we kind of maybe surprised them that we like to run like that. We’ve been playing so many teams that have been slowing us down, that we finally played one that wanted to speed us up and I enjoyed that part of it.”

Outside of White, the Wildcats as a team finished shooting 13-of-50 from the field and 1-of-12 from 3-point range. After committing 10 turnovers in the first half, Dan River forced nine turnovers and only turned the ball over five times, but it was too little too late in the team’s run for a state title.

“They shot the 3-ball extremely well. They did a really good job tonight,” Gruse said. “I felt like tonight was their night. We played well at times and I didn’t feel like we played our ‘A’ ball by any means and that was due to what they did.”