Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 13, 1993 TAG: 9307130181
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium
Nothing would have helped the West as the East stormed to a 106-68 victory in the Virginia High School Coaches' Association boys' all-star basketball game Monday night.
Rhodes never appeared for the West, and teammate Jemare Crump hasn't graduated from high school, making him ineligible.
"I thought Carlos was going," Fleming coach Burrall Paye said from his home in Roanoke. "I thought he was there."
Damon Bacote of Hampton was there and put on quite a show for the crowd of 5,000. He scored 28 points and the East set a record for margin of victory - surpassing its 33-point differential in 1983 - with the 38-point thrashing.
Martinsville's Spencer Martin replaced Crump and scored 14 points to become the West's MVP.
Bacote, the East's MVP, said, "I didn't think it would be that easy. I felt good warming up."
Bacote scored 10 points in the opening quarter. Then he went to the bench to await his next rotation in the second half.
"I was afraid the layoff in the second quarter would hurt," said Bacote, who has signed with Richmond. "But I felt good the second half. It was a fitting way to end my high school career."
The West has lost 11 of the last 12 all-star games.
"We didn't know it would be this bad," said West coach Gerald Thompson of Christiansburg.
Is there any remedy for the one-sided series?
"Get all the players here. Some players in Northern Virginia don't show and some in Roanoke don't either," Thompson said.
He wasn't referring only to Rhodes and Crump. "Not all the ones in Roanoke stay at their own schools [such as Patrick Henry and William Fleming in past years]," Thompson said.
Pulaski County's Chris Foster said, "Bacote is the best I've played against. I'm not sure anyone could have helped us, but I know to win you have to play good team ball. But I thought it would be closer than this."
by CNB