Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 9, 1993 TAG: 9303090183
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CAVE SPRING GIRLS CLAIM TITLE
George Washington of Danville's girls came with plenty of heart but without one of their star basketball players.Cave Spring just kept coming with defense, good shooting, and a wall of noise from the home gallery.
The Knights stayed close with switching defenses then pulled away out of a spread offense for a 69-60 victory over the Eagles that earned a second straight Group AAA Northwestern Region title Monday night.
Cave Spring (24-3) plays Friday at 7 p.m. against W.T. Woodson at Robinson High in Fairfax in a state quarterfinal matchup, marking the Knights' sixth straight trip to the state tournament. G.W. travels to Northern Region champion James Madison for a 9 p.m. Saturday game.
"Cave Spring plays us differently than anybody else does," Eagles coach Chris Carter said. "I don't want to say what they do, but it's effective."
G.W. fell to 22-3, its only losses coming to the Knights.
"We usually play man-to-man, which is what we started out in tonight," Cave Spring coach Linda Long said. "But they were beating us down the floor, so we switched to the 3-2 zone. That cut off their penetration."
Cave Spring opened the second half in the zone but then went back to man-to-man when the Eagles got six of their first eight points of the half inside, four coming from unexpected heroine Teresa Hill. G.W. went up 37-31, but never seemed as sure of itself thereafter.
"We didn't want to let them get comfortable against our defense," Long said.
Carter, with an animated sideline demeanor, treated his seat as though it were ablaze.
"You never feel like you're in control against Cave Spring," he said. "They shoot too well."
G.W. was without second-leading scorer Glossary Smith (13 ppg., 11 rpg.), who missed part of the school day Monday and was left home to do penance.
Hill stepped it up and scored a game-high 23 points - 14 more than her average - to go with 10 rebounds. Katrina King added 14 points.
Cave Spring gained control for good with a 10-2 run in the last 1:34 of the third quarter to take a 54-48 lead. Post player Kelly Dierker scored six of her 22 then.
"Our guards would penetrate and their big people would step up to help and the bounce pass would be open on the block every time," said Dierker, who added nine rebounds.
Cave Spring went to its spread and scored on six of its last seven possessions to close the game out.
"I think I'm going to send a film clip of that to Dean Smith to see what he thinks," Long said. "I thought we ran it pretty well."
Cave Spring got 16 points, including 6-for-6 foul shooting, from Kim Stewart and nine points and 14 rebounds from Amy Athey. A major assist came from the Knights rocking and rolling crowd, which filled the home stands and spilled over to the opposite side for close to a full house.