By Tim Pearrell
Media General News Service

Bradley Riester has been battling strep throat this week. Medicine certainly helped, but the best cure may have been the chance to play for a championship.

The 6-1 senior guard scored a career-high 29 points to lead second-seeded Monacan to a 74-49 victory over top-seeded Cosby in the title game of the boys Dominion District basketball tournament before a packed house at Cosby last Friday.

Monacan (19-3) will play host to Armstrong in the first round of the Central Region tournament Monday. Cosby (18-5) will play host to Varina.

The Chiefs, ranked eighth in the Times-Dispatch Top 10, lost 63-58 at seventh-ranked Cosby during the regular season. The other meeting was wiped out because of snow.

“We definitely had something to prove,” Riester said. “We’ve been saying that all year.”

Monacan was 9-14 last season with basically the same group.

“We started working a lot harder,” Riester said. “The chemistry really came together.”

Riester averages about 12 points. He had 17 in a semifinal win over Huguenot and was almost unstoppable last night.

He had 10 points in the first quarter and 11 in the second as hot-shooting Monacan opened a 43-20 halftime lead. In a span of 83 seconds in the second quarter, Riester banked in a floater, knifed through congestion for a left-handed layup, hit another layup and then drained a 3-pointer.

He finished 11-of-14 from the floor, including five 3-pointers.

“I’ve been waiting to go off all year,” he said. “I haven’t had a breakout game. It happened at a perfect time.”

Riester had plenty of help. Sean Armstrong, Anthony Brown and Derrick Cates each scored 10 points as the smaller Chiefs pushed the pace and made some nifty passes that produced easy baskets inside. Monacan was 28-of-42 from the floor after three quarters.

Cates (6-4), Armstrong (6-5) and Daniel Eacho (6-7) also did yeoman work limiting Cosby’s taller front line. David Robinson had 24 points for the Titans.

“We’ve got pretty good athletes,” Monacan coach Bill Roberson said. “When we pushed the ball, we thought our athleticism would take over a little bit.”

Tim Pearrell is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.