Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 11, 1992 TAG: 9203110257
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-9 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But after a week of regional play, traveling won't be anything new to either squad.
In Group AA, Region IV, Blacksburg traveled 94 miles each way to Richlands on Thursday for the semifinals. Then on Saturday it went 122 miles to Bristol to play Virginia High in the regional finals.
It isn't much farther to Charlottesville - 151 miles.
Meanwhile, Pulaski County's semifinal game with Gar-Field in the Group AAA, Northwestern Region meant a 276-mile bus ride to Woodbridge. A trip to Charlottesville would be about 114 miles shorter.
\ ALL THAT TRAVEL can tire a team. Both teams have played five times in the past 10 days with at least two road trips.
"Right now, I'm just thinking about getting some rest," said Blacksburg coach Bob Trear. "We've played some big games, some emotional games. We've played four games in seven [actually eight] nights. And after the game you don't have a chance to get yourself ready for the next game. It's emotionally draining. You have to go all out. Now we need to get some rest. And we have five or six days to do that."
Blacksburg had its two trips after hosting the New River District tournament and a first-round regional game.
Pulaski County played twice at home and twice in Roanoke in addition to its sojourn to Northern Virginia.
\ WHAT A DIFFERENCE a day or two can make. The Pulaski County girls' team scored more points in its first-round regional contest - 66 - than in two Roanoke Valley District tournament games combined - 65.
"We really got up for that game," said the Cougars' scoring and play-making guard Terri Garland. "We really focused on playing our game."
Blacksburg trailed at halftime at Richlands before turning things around in the third quarter in the Region IV semis.
"At the start of the third quarter, we went one minute without scoring," said Richlands coach Tom Rife. "We had the ball the whole time. Blacksburg didn't get the ball until the seven-minute mark. I should have known then that we were going to be tentative [offensively]."
But in the finals, Virginia High caught at passed Blacksburg in the decisive third period.
"We just got out of our game," said Blacksburg center Jon Maher, the leading scorer in the New River District. "We didn't work our offense."
\ HISTORY IS ON THE SIDE of both Blacksburg and Pulaski County, sort of.
The Blacksburg boys won the state Class IB titles - a hybrid classification between what would become Group AAA and Group AA - in 1965 and 1968.
Old Pulaski High captured the state unclassified girls' title in 1926.
Other schools in the New River Valley that have won boys' basketball state championships are Auburn, a Class III title in 1967; old Pulaski, a Class IB crown in 1962; and Radford, a Class II championship in 1949.
Girls' Group AA crowns have been captured by Radford (1983, 1984, 1988 and 1990) and Blacksburg (1978 and 1982).
\ HELP IS COMING . . . Auburn finished in the middle of the pack in the Mountain Empire District. And Radford was fourth in the four-team New River District. But each school's junior varsity won its district's jayvee tournament.
\ THE ALL-NRD TEAM will not be announced until the last New River District team has completed its basketball season.
But the all-Region IV team was announced Saturday at the conclusion of the regional tournament. It featured 15 players, five each from the New River, Highlands and Southwest Districts.
So its safe to guess that somewhere on the all-district team are Blacksburg's Jon Maher and Darren Morton, Jason Stockner of Carroll County, Steve Gregory of Christiansburg and Duane Pierson of Radford.
The quintet made the all-region team. And the coaches consider only all-district players for regional honors.
M.J. Dougherty is a correspondent for the New River Valley bureau who was courtside for seven basketball games in 10 days.
by CNB