BLUEFIELD, Va. – Graham junior Drew Baker is a man of action and that’s exactly what his team needed Saturday.
Facing a Lebanon team that takes pride in patient execution, the 5-foot-9 point guard collected 19 points, six steals and four assists to guide the Graham G-Men to a 57-33 win over the Lebanon Pioneers in the Southwest District basketball tournament championship game.
“Our guys have played together our entire lives, from travel ball and AAU to high school,” Baker said. “We think basketball year-round.”
Baker, who averages eight points and six assists, relishes his role as the director of the balanced G-Men show.
“Unless I get in foul trouble, I like to play the entire game and run the offense,” Baker said. “I usually just dish the ball, but tonight my shot felt good.”
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Graham (20-2) scored the first seven points and quickly expanded the margin to 22-12 at halftime. The G-Men led 40-17 with 38 seconds left in the third quarter against a Lebanon team that attempts to dictate the pace.
“We were very worried about Lebanon,” Graham head coach Glynn Carlock Jr. said. “We told our guys before the game that we did not want to allow [Lebanon’s] slow-down offensive sets to take away from our defense like it did in our game at Lebanon. We wanted our defensive intensity to stay up.”
Baker brought the intensity and more.
“Drew is solid,” Carlock said.
Serving as a head coach for the first time in 16 years, Lebanon’s Brian Hooker has authored one of most intriguing stories in Southwest Virginia with a team that returned just one starter in senior guard Adam Hooker.
“We lost about everybody last season and Adam has been a really good leader,” Coach Hooker said.
Lebanon’s formula for success has been defense, ball movement, patience and intelligent shots.
“We can’t run up and down the floor with teams, but we’ve bought into defense,” Coach Hooker said. “I call us the poor man’s version of the University of Virginia. I’ve bet we’ve played man-to-man defense 90 percent of the season.”
Senior defensive stopper Jake Justus helped to hold Graham scoring machine Darrin Martin (25 points per game) to a season-low two points Saturday.
“Martin is a great player, but we have other players who can step up,” Baker said.
The tallest player for Lebanon (16-9) is 6-3 junior forward A.J. Bruck, who scored a season-high 17 points in the semifinal win over Richlands.
“I’ve been around a lot of good teams and had a lot of good players, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been as proud of a team,” Hooker said. “At the start of the season, I was just hoping we could be competitive. These kids are pure heart and I’ve had a great time this season.”
Six-foot-one senior Adam Hooker scored 20 points Saturday, with most of his damage coming on low post moves and drives.
Six-foot-five Graham senior center Garrett Dalton found his a groove working as high post. In addition to scoring 11 points, Dalton delivered several nifty entry passes while adding interior defense and rebounding.
“I try to do well in all parts of the game and help my teammates,” said Dalton, a 12-ppg scorer who has been on the varsity since his freshman year. “We all contribute in our different ways on this team.”
Carlock appreciates the many aspects of Dalton’s game.
“Garrett is a phenomenal post player,” Carlock said. “He can shoot the ball and has good footwork. He has a hard time with fouls, but we’ve relied on him for four years.”
Carlock said that Graham will host John Battle on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Hooker said he assumes that the Pioneers will face a first round regional game at Gate City.