THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 13, 1996 TAG: 9602130402
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMI FRANKENBERRY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
The Norfolk Academy boys basketball team's game plan - stopping Nansemond-Suffolk's Warren Carroll - was evident from start to finish Friday night in a showdown of unbeaten Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools teams.
The Bulldogs ran two and three defenders at Carroll in a fullcourt zone defense and held the freshman sensation to nine points, nine below his average, in a 69-57 win to earn the TCIS regular season title.
Norfolk Academy (17-6 overall, 9-0 TCIS) will be the top seed in the conference tournament, which begins Wednesday at Greenbrier Christian, while the Saints (17-5, 8-1) drop to No. 2 in the conference.
Norfolk Academy's defense held Carroll, who didn't hit a field goal until late in the fourth quarter, to 2-for-13 shooting from the field.
``Definitely, that's what we keyed on the whole time,'' said the Bulldogs' Bryan Duquette, who led all scorers with 18 points. ``We just tried to play tight pressure defense and not allow him an easy shot. We were making him earn his shots.''
Said Carroll, ``When I got the ball and tried to penetrate, they'd send two guys at me. Then they'd triple team me and I couldn't find nothing to do.''
The Saints failed to find any rhythm on offense, shooting just 15 for 51 (29 percent) from the field.
``I attribute that to Norfolk Academy,'' Nansemond-Suffolk coach Rick Van Orden said. ``It was a great defensive effort. They used a lot of pressure and knew what to do to give our offense problems.''
Nansemond-Suffolk took a 2-0 lead to open the game on a short jumper by Paul Fleming, but trailed for good after Russell Carter's three-pointer the next trip down. Carroll committed his second foul four minutes into the game and didn't return until less than a minute remained in the first quarter.
``Two quick fouls really took him out of his game,'' Van Orden said. ``He never recovered.''
The Bulldogs forced 12 first half turnovers and held the Saints to five field goals to take a 26-16 lead at halftime.
``We came out flat,'' Carroll said. ``Against a good team, you can't do that. We just couldn't hit a shot.''
Norfolk Academy opened the second half with a 9-0 run. Duquette scored on a layup while Yuraj Podvorac added a three-pointer and a jumper to force a Nansemond-Suffolk timeout.
``To have 12 turnovers and hit five field goals and only be down 10 (at halftime), I felt like we were fortunate,'' Van Orden said. ``I figured we could turn it around a little bit and get back in it, but we didn't.''
The Saints pulled within 11 in the final seconds of the third quarter when Joby Webb followed Lee Cross' miss to make it 39-28, but that was as close as Nansemond-Suffolk would get.
The Bulldogs got two three-pointers from Jay Denny and a layup from Podvorac to lead 53-35 with four minutes left.
N-SA's John Dragseth, Eddie Bagnell and Fleming fouled out late in the fourth. The Bulldogs hit 6 of 7 free throws in the final minute.
Podvorac finished with 14 points, while Carter, Colston Jones and Tommy Van Hoose added eight each for the Bulldogs. Bagnell had nine, while Dragseth finished with eight points and 14 rebounds. ILLUSTRATION: JIM WALKER
The Virginian-Pilot
Colston Jones of Norfolk Academy doesn't have far to reach to lay
the ball in against Paul Fleming of Nansemond-Suffolk Academy.
by CNB