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Ravenswood boys capture Little Kanawha Conference championship

Heatherington has 25 points and 14 boards in win

Photo by Jordan Holland Ravenswood's Lakin Tucker (25) looks to pass as Gilmer County's Lukas Sirbaugh (32) defends during the Little Kanawha Conference Night of Champions final Saturday at the Waco Center in Glenville. Ravenswood won, 69-59.

GLENVILLE — If there’s a better basketball player in the Little Kanawha Conference than Ravenswood’s Riley Heatherington, Red Devils head coach Mick Price has yet to see it.

Heatherington posted game-highs of 25 points and 14 rebounds in a 69-59 win over Gilmer County Saturday in the Little Kanawha Conference Night of Champions final at the Waco Center. It’s the Red Devils’ first LKC title since 2008 and 11th since 1987.

“I thought it was a really good win for our program,” said Price, whose team improved to 18-2. “I also thought that tonight probably solidified the best player in the conference, Riley Heatherington. That’s the Player of the Year in this conference.”

Price also acknowledged his team’s other big performers, including sixth man Blake Bennett, who connected on four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points. Jayden Rhodes and Isaiah Morgan finished with 11 points each for the winners while Hayden Mandrake notched a team-high four assists.

Gilmer (17-4) was led by Trey Shuff’s 20 points, despite Shuff being in foul trouble early.

“It killed us,” said Titans head coach Steve Shuff, whose team had a 16-game win streak snapped. “As you see we don’t play very many kids. That hurts when one of your studs gets in foul trouble.”

Coach Shuff, who also saw senior Carter Springer tally 17 points and seven boards, said foul trouble limited the way Gilmer could guard Heatherington.

“We wanted to try to get around front of him and we just got in foul trouble,” he said.

“It forced us to go into some defensive things that we didn’t want to do. Riley’s a great player, one of the best to play in our league. And hats off to the Bennett kid. Blake made some big-time shots. When their sixth man comes in and is their second leading scorer, that’s something you’ve got to live with.”

The game was back and forth the entire first half, with Ravenswood leading 30-27 at halftime. However, the Red Devils opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run, which proved to be the difference.

“Coach always preaches that the first 10 possessions of the second half determines the game,” Heatherington said. “We came out firing, making all of our shots and playing great defense. That was definitely the difference.”

Steve Shuff added, “We said (at halftime), ‘Whoever wins the first three minutes of the second half is going to win this basketball game.’ We come down and missed an open look out of one our sets; they go down and hit a 3 and go on an 8-0 run to start the second half. I think that was the difference.”

Ravenswood came into the game uncertain of the status of regular starters Mandrake and Stephen Dawson, who weren’t 100 percent healthy.

“We weren’t really sure what they could do,” Price said. “They just gutted it out tonight. I was really pleased with that.

“I also want to say … I couldn’t be more in respect of what (Gilmer County) does and what Steve does. I thought we took a pretty good shot from them. They really played their A-game and controlled the tempo early. But our kids kept coming back and coming back, and opening up the third quarter like that was a big plus for us.”

The LKC title is a special honor for Price, who played an integral role in putting together the LKC Night of Champions. Heatherington was proud to deliver another title to his coach.

“Our assistant coach really talked it up to us,” said Heatherington, a reigning first team all-stater. “He was giving us all this history and stuff about how coach Price and other people kind of made the LKC. This was all for them. They were really wanting us to win this and they really pushed us hard in practice. It meant a lot to them and to us.”

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