Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 20, 1992 TAG: 9203200263
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
\ Cave Spring's Kim Stewart put on a shooting demonstration Thursday that earned attention from a higher level but failed to get the Knights into the Group AAA girls' basketball final.
Stewart fired in seven 3-point goals out of 10 attempts before a Cave Spring rally ran out of time. Phoebus held on for a 55-47 semifinal victory and will play Pulaski County for the title Saturday at 7 p.m.
As Stewart walked off the floor, Tammi Reiss, the shooting guard for the No. 1-ranked University of Virginia women's team, asked the Knights' guard for an autograph.
"She just said, `Give me your autograph.' I should have asked for hers," said Stewart.
It was Stewart's shooting that got Reiss' attention.
"I was sort of unconscious," said Stewart, whose 27 points were a career high. Normally a 47 percent shooter from the 3-point line, Stewart went 6-for-8 in the second half as the Knights, who were down 46-31 after three quarters, closed to 51-47.
Stewart tried to hit her seventh consecutive 3-pointer to make it a one-point game, but Phoebus' La'Keisha Frett blocked the ball out of bounds.
On the inbounds play, the Knights tried to find Stewart, but J'ainel Hargrove stole the ball and hit a layup with 27 seconds left to sew up the Phantoms' 29th victory in 30 games.
"We didn't execute. We wanted to get the ball to Kim off a double pick, but we didn't want to go right to her," said Cave Spring coach Dave Layman.
The Knights (25-4) didn't lose on that play. They lost because of Frett, a Parade All-American who wound up with 26 points, one less than Stewart. The 6-foot-3 Phoebus junior didn't have a great day offensively except in the third quarter. Defensively, she stopped the Knights' Lisa Hodges, who finished with two points.
In the third quarter, Frett scored 12 points and hauled in eight of her game-high 13 rebounds. She also had three of her six blocked shots.
"We sort of got intimidated by her and we didn't take it to her. Yeah, she stopped me," said Hodges, who played AAU basketball last summer with Frett.
"We knew Lisa had to have a good game for us to win," Layman said of Hodges, who goes to North Carolina State next year. "But with her we won 94 games and we can't forget that."
Frett didn't play that well offensively. She hit 11 of 28 shots and got two rebounds in the first half before turning it on in the third quarter.
"In a game like this, the best thing to do is play it cool," Frett said of her shooting woes. "I lost my concentration. I blew I don't know how many layups.
"[In the third quarter] I wasn't trying to get things done. I was thinking, `My team had to get with it.' "
Cave Spring played well in the first quarter as Stewart scored eight points and didn't miss from the floor. In the second and third periods, the Knights caved in offensively and might not have made a game out of it had Stewart not regained her touch.
"We let Stewart get too many 3-pointers," said Phoebus coach Mike Tallon. "I thought we would do a better job with her.
"We were more worried about Stewart [than anyone else]. That's why we rotated three guards on her. Stewart can attack and kick it out. She rained bombs on us."
Despite Stewart escaping, Cave Spring faced a Phoebus team that had not given up more than 43 points in a game and held five teams under 15 points.
That explains why Stewart didn't get a lot of help. Only freshman guard Aimee Beightol and senior Nikki Clowers managed more than one field goal for Cave Spring, and for the second year in a row the Knights lost in the state semifinals. \
see microfilm for box score
by CNB