Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 23, 1993 TAG: 9301230292
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS STEUART STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NORTH CROSS HAMMERS LCA
Lynchburg Christian Academy wanted to make its free throws, keep North Cross under 80 points and play its best game ever.It did none of the above.
Instead, the Bulldogs were spanked by the Raiders 91-69 in the Carter Athletic Center in a Virginia Independent Conference boys' basketball game Friday night.
"If we could have played the whole game like the first quarter, it would have been a close game," Lynchburg Christian Academy coach Donnie Norman said.
North Cross led 20-13 after the first quarter, then dusted Lynchburg Christian in the second by wreaking defensive havoc, running its offense at breakneck speed and scoring easily in transition.
"We just turned up the intensity in the second quarter," said Marcus Cardwell, who tied with teammate Mike Bryan with a team-high 16 points. "We played good defense, got the ball out and found the open man on the break."
The Raiders outscored the Bulldogs 38-16 in the second quarter and went to the locker room with a 58-29 halftime lead, which left the raucous North Cross fans looking forward to a second half that didn't mean much.
"It's almost impossible to come back from that big a deficit," Norman said.
Said North Cross coach Jim Muscaro: "It was over in the second quarter."
In the first half, LCA was 4-of-11 from the free-throw line and committed 15 turnovers.
"The defense we played in the second quarter was as good as we've ever played," Muscaro said. "It seemed like every time they passed the ball, we had a guy there to catch it."
Besides Cardwell and Bryan, two other Raiders scored in double figures. Starting post player Aaron Marley had 15 and Tyler Pugh scored 10 off the bench.
Marley lit up the place from 3-point range with three. Pugh added two and Cardwell had one.
"We just played good team ball tonight," Bryan said. "Our outside guys hit the threes and then their defense started respecting that, and the inside was open all night."
Two highlights in an otherwise uneventful second half were whether the Raiders would reach 100 points and the emptying of the North Cross bench only two minutes into the fourth quarter.
Did the players want to score 100?
"Yeah," Cardwell said.
But playing the reserves made that goal difficult to reach.
"You've got to look for next year and give the kids a chance because they are gonna have to do it next year," Muscaro said.