ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 16, 1995 TAG: 9512200014
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN A. MONTGOMERY SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
The inconsistencies of youth provided some high drama Friday night.
Among all the close basketball games Cave Spring and Salem have staged over the years, witness one of the most unusual.
The Knights, fueled by a Jeff Lang free-throw exhibition, withstood a furious Spartans rally in the final seconds to defeat Salem 48-46 in a non-district game at the Cave Spring gym. The Knights entered the fourth quarter up by nine, but the sequence preceding the final horn left both head coaches shaking their heads.
Salem, held scoreless in the third quarter and half the fourth, finished the game with eight points in a 12-second span - and got the ball back for the potential game-winning shot.
But Salem sophomore Sam Lazzaro, who led his team with 13 points, ran out of miracles. His hurried 3-point shot attracted several defenders and was off the mark.
``We didn't take care of the basketball down the stretch,'' Cave Spring coach Chris Carr said. ``We got full of ourselves; we thought we had the game won and almost allowed them to steal it away from us.''
Salem coach Charlie Morgan pointed to his team's mistakes, too.
``We dug ourselves a hole,'' Morgan said. ``We didn't get our motors running in the third quarter. We just stood around. But we battled back.''
Salem (1-1) never trailed in the first half, leading 26-21 at intermission.
But Cave Spring (3-2) did all of the scoring in the third quarter, as Lang, Alex Phillips and Olin McClain combined for 14 points. ``We played great defense, too,'' Carr said, as the Spartans missed all four of their field-goal attempts during the period.
``It wasn't that our offense was stalling,'' Morgan said. ``We just got rattled.''
Salem regained its composure at the start of the final period, and Lazzaro tied the score at 35 on a 12-foot jumper with 5:15 remaining. Seconds later, the Knights responded with a Billy Frantz inside basket, and then neither team scored for the next three minutes.
With 2:02 left, Salem sent Lang to the free-throw line for the first of five times. He made all 10 free throws.
``Lang's a clutch kid,'' Carr said. ``When the game's on the line, that's who we want at the free-throw line.''
Morgan acknowledged that Salem wanted to foul someone else, but Lang, who finished with 22 points, kept the ball in his possession at the end.
Still, Salem managed to close a 46-38 deficit to 48-46 as Eric Millard sandwiched five consecutive free throws around a Cave Spring turnover, and Lazzaro followed Lang's final two free throws with a 3-pointer with four seconds left.
After a wild scramble on Cave Spring's ensuing inbounds pass, the referees awarded Salem the ball on the side with three seconds remaining.
Millard passed to Lazzaro, who had converted three of his first four 3-point attempts.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB