Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992 TAG: 9202010322
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN WEBSTER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PH ROLLS 100-76
Like Ol' Man River, the Patrick Henry boys' basketball team just keeps on rolling.Coach Woody Deans' Patriots showed why they are ranked second in Group AAA by posting a 100-76 Roanoke Valley District victory over Franklin County on Friday night at the PH gym.
Sophomore guard Curtis Staples led the Patrick Henry onslaught with 29 points, which beat his previous high of 26 points. It was his 3-pointer with a little less than 30 seconds left in the game that put the Patriots at 100 points.
"I knew we had 97 points before I took that last shot," Staples said. "I just wanted to get 100 points for our fans."
Deans displayed a lot of confidence in his young guard.
"[Staples] is an excellent shooter," Deans said. "In fact, he is the next Curtis Blair."
Blair was a primary player in the Patriots' charge to the Group AAA championship in 1988. Coincidentally, the last time PH scored 100 points against Franklin County was during that championship year of '88.
Patrick Henry (16-1 overall, 3-0 Roanoke Valley) opened the game with a 9-0 run, but it was a scoring spree late in the second quarter that put the game away. With 3:40 left in the second, PH led 29-22. Then, in machine gun-like fashion, the Patriots made seven straight shots for 14 points. That made it 43-22, and they led 43-24 at halftime.
PH began the second half just as hot and, in less than three minutes, led 60-30. Franklin County, which had been shooting 25 percent in the first 2 1/2 quarters, finally starting finding the range. The Eagles (2-12, 1-3) made good on five of their next six 3-point attempts to close the gap to 69-49 at the end of the third quarter, but they got no closer.
"Take away that spurt they had late in the first half and I thought we sort of played them even the rest of the way," Franklin County coach Calvin Preston said. "It all happened so fast. We missed our shots and they made theirs. It's my fault, though . . . I should have called a timeout."
PH led from start to finish. The teams were tied once when Tim Witcher muscled up a rebound for Franklin County to make it 15-15 early in the second quarter. But when Tim Basham made a 3-pointer, the Patriots took control.
PH played without second-leading scorer and rebounder Jonas Callis, who has the chicken pox. \
see microfilm for box score
Memo: longer version ran in the New River Valley edition.