Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 8, 1992 TAG: 9202080320
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PHYLLIS A. FAIR SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NORTHSIDE CLIMBS HILL TO VICTORY
It wasn't the prettiest of victories, but Northside didn't mind.Although the Vikings committed 16 turnovers, they defeated Salem 71-60 in a Blue Ridge District boys' basketball game Friday night at Northside.
"We played really sloppy," senior forward Matt Hill said. "We picked it up and played a pretty good third quarter."
Hill scored 10 of his 22 points in the third and helped the Vikings (13-3 overall, 4-0 Blue Ridge) establish their biggest lead of the game, 49-35, with 2:09 left in the quarter.
"Matt showed strong leadership tonight," Northside coach Billy Pope said. "He kept them working hard."
In the fourth quarter, the Vikings got careless with turnovers and allowed the Spartans to get back into the game.
With Northside up 58-47, Salem went on an 8-0 run. But the Vikings came right back with an 11-5 run of their own.
"Yeah, we let them back in the game, but then again, we didn't break," Pope said.
Hill said Salem's defense was part of the reason for Northside's poor performance.
"They jumped out to a 1-3-1 [zone] and that might have surprised us," he said. "We weren't thinking and relaxed a little bit."
Spartans coach Len Mosser said he wanted to mix up the defenses in order to keep his players out of foul trouble.
It worked until the fourth quarter, when Mark Byington and Nathan Routt, two of the Spartans' leading scorers, fouled out.
Salem (6-7, 1-3) played well through the first quarter and took a 14-11 lead.
Northside tied it on Aaron Burford's 3-pointer with 7:07 left in the second quarter. The Spartans took their biggest lead of the night, 21-17, 2 1/2 minutes later. Northside then went on a 17-6 run to regain the lead and never relinquished it.
Mosser said the Vikings' seven-point run at the end of the second quarter hurt Salem more than anything.
"We were never able to get back into it after that," he said. "We let it get away from us. We made a lot of mistakes and it cost us the ballgame. We weren't consistently able to handle their pressure defense."
Not every Spartan had an off night. Jason Pugh topped his previous season high of 27 points by scoring 28, mostly on layups.
"I thought he played well," Mosser said. "We always want to go inside to him." \
see microfilm for box score