Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 15, 1992 TAG: 9203150203
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DALEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The Knights stunned defending Group AAA champion James Madison, ranked 25th in the nation by USA Today, 69-59 to advance to the state tournament final four in Charlottesville.
"It's the greatest win in the history of girls' basketball in the Roanoke Valley," said Knights coach Dave Layman, whose team will play at 1 p.m. Thursday against Phoebus, a 78-41 winner over Armstrong on Saturday.
Cave Spring (24-2) fell behind by 12 points and its defense wasn't stopping the Warhawks (26-2). More important, Madison's intimidating defense was smothering the Knights' offense, except for senior Lisa Hodges. She scored six points and hauled in six rebounds in the first two quarters to keep Cave Spring in the game.
In the second half, the Knights changed.
"Kim [Stewart] and I were trying to get the ball down the side of the floor faster against their press. Then we wanted to pass the ball to Lisa inside for a quick basket. If that wasn't there, we wanted to pull it out, make a few passes and force them to work on defense," said freshman guard Aimee Beightol.
On defense, Layman put his team in a 1-3-1 zone with 6-foot-1 Amy Athey on top to shut off outside shooter Windsor Coggeshall, who hit three 3-point field goals in the opening half for Madison. The strategy worked. Coggeshall didn't score in the second half and attempted only three shots.
"We knew if we went out and played our game, didn't get intimidated, they couldn't keep playing like they did [in the first half] the whole game," said Hodges.
Layman added: "I told the kids that when Madison was up by so many points in the first half, I didn't think they could play better than that. We felt that if we could play the zone and be close in the last few minutes, the basket would be smaller [because of pressure] for them to shoot at."
It proved true, but the Knights didn't get control until Stewart took over in the final quarter. She hit 14 points, including two 3-pointers, in the quarter and finished with 23 points.
The rally actually began when Hodges, who finished with 21 points, hit a 3-point shot near the end of the third quarter to slice Madison's lead to 52-48.
"I thought I air-balled it," said Hodges. "I wanted to shoot outside, but they had been out on me."
From then, Stewart owned the game. She gave the Knights their first lead with 2:50 left on a 3-point shot that made it 58-57.
"I'm pretty much a streak shooter from the 3-point range. But the team was doing a good job getting the ball to me when I was open," said Stewart.
After Stewart's shot, Beightol stole the ball and hit Kelly Dierker with a pass for a layup to give the Knights a 60-57 lead.
Madison then began to panic, throwing up 3-point shots and hurrying to foul in order to put the Knights at the free-throw line. The Warhawks had committed only one personal foul in the second half before Stewart's shot.
With 1:18 left, Stewart sank two free throws.
Madison's Nicole Mitchelle got the Warhawks' only points of the final 3:14 when she hit a follow shot after two missed 3-point attempts.
On the inbounds play, the Knights made a turnover, but Madison's Denise Wojciech missed a layup. Hodges rebounded and was fouled. She made both free throws for a 65-59 lead with 43 seconds left, and from then on Madison could only foul. \
see microfilm for box score
by CNB