Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 24, 1993                   TAG: 9309240148
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

INDIANS ROLL BY SPARTANS

The Blacksburg senior scored 10 points, dealt out 14 assists and led the team from the guard position with nine rebounds.

It was Thorn's 3-point shot at the end of the third quarter that turned the game in favor of the Indians as they pulled away from Salem for a 68-45 non-district girls' basketball victory.

The win for the defending Group AA state champion Indians (8-1) wasn't easy. Ten days ago, they blew out the Spartans (3-3) by 30 points in Blacksburg. This time Salem led 30-28 at halftime and trailed 42-40 with time running out in the third quarter.

Then Thorn wheeled and threw in a 40-footer at the buzzer. After that Salem faded as Thorn added another trey in the final quarter and Blacksburg outscored the Spartans 23-5.

"I was looking at Mickey [McGuigan, the Blacksburg coach] and he was going 3-2-1 [seconds]," said Thorn of her dramatic shot. "It felt good when I let it go and I think that took a little out of them."

Thorn's 14 assists came mostly to inside players Abigail Murrmann, who led the Indians with 20 points, and reserve Amy Worley, Murrmann's backup, who had 12.

"We definitely wanted to go inside because of our height advantage," Thorn said. "Amy kept us from going down by a bigger margin in the first half."

Salem sophomore Shellie Johnson got 12 of her 16 points in the opening half and the Spartans connected on 14 of 30 shots in the opening half before making seven of 26 after intermission.

"I'm glad we gave them a better game than the last time," said Salem coach Dee Wright. "We knew the height would wear us down. Then in the second half they got in sync and we stopped shooting."

Blacksburg made 32 of 62 shots, but it took an 11-of-14 performance in the final quarter to come up with that good a shooting percentage. The Indians owned the rebounding edge 39-32, but 10 steals by Salem (four from Becky Raplee) kept the Spartans close.

"Salem does an extremely good job of adjusting to what a team does to them the first time," said McGuigan. "In the first game, we got a lot of fast-break baskets. So tonight they were getting back, so we had to change to an offense they hadn't seen before."

Added Thorn: "We made some half-time adjustments. The post players were wide open and we hadn't been going to them and then we weren't boxing out the first half."