Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 7, 1994 TAG: 9403070077
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Salem, known as a football power, rocketed to No. 1 in the Group AA state poll the last week of the season when Lee-Staunton and Brunswick were beaten for the first time.
The Spartans (21-1) still are on top and are ready to play Graham (15-8) in the first round of the Group AA state tournament tonight at 8 at the Salem Civic Center. Brunswick and Lee-Staunton are out of the state tournament, though defending champion Spotswood remains in contention after finishing as the Region II runner-up.
William Fleming (18-5) is even more amazing than Salem. In 12 days, the Group AAA Colonels have come from near extinction to being a team of distinction.
Fleming was in danger of losing to Cave Spring in the Roanoke Valley District semifinals after the Colonels had finished tied for second with the Knights during the regular season. Fleming, down by six to start the fourth quarter, survived a last-second shot by Cave Spring's Matt Matheny and beat the Knights in overtime.
Since then, the Colonels have been on a roll with four victories by more than 10 points. Tonight, Fleming gets a rematch of last year's first-round Group AAA state tournament game when it plays Hayfield (21-4) at 6:30 at the Salem Civic Center.
If that isn't enough, Northside (21-5) meets Blacksburg (13-7), another hot team, at Christiansburg in an All-Timesland Group AA first-round game at 7:30. Neither team has made as strong a showing as Salem or Fleming, but either is capable of reaching the title game.
A fifth Timesland team, Parry McCluer (22-2) is in the Group A state tournament. The Fighting Blues, from another school thought of mostly for football, first must take care of a Region C championship game at Emory & Henry tonight against Chilhowie.
How important is that game? If third-ranked Parry McCluer wins, the Blues' first-round Group A state opponent on Tuesday at the Dedmon Center in Radford will be Honaker. If Parry McCluer loses, the first-round opponent will be No. 2-ranked Twin Springs.
Salem and Fleming have equal shots at winning a state title. Both have big-time players - the Spartans with Mark Byington and the Colonels with Derrick Hines.
Those two have great supporting casts. Byington, who has signed with UNC Wilmington, is backed by three other double-figure scorers in Nathan Routt, Kevin Garst and Matt Woolwine. Point guard Bryan Monroe is steady and also capable of scoring.
Hines, a junior, is joined by suddenly hot 6-foot-6 William Fitzgerald, 6-5 James Stokes and 6-2 Reggie Reynolds as double-figure scorers. Fleming also has the height needed to survive in Group AAA.
In Salem's 79-56 win over Northside for the Region III title, Byington took over, hitting six 3-point shots and scoring 32 points - eight more than his average.
"The best players rise to the top in situations like that," Salem coach Charlie Morgan said. "Mark is just a super player."
The Spartans also proved they can survive foul trouble when Chad Pendleton and Ryan Reeves gave Salem some quality time against the Vikings after Woolwine and Routt fouled out.
In Fleming's game, the Colonels will meet an old nemesis in Hayfield's Ronnell Felton. As a junior, Felton was averaging 31 points in tournament play. The Colonels kept him from dominating, rallied from a 48-45 deficit and beat the Hawks 56-50 last year in the state tournament. Felton is back as the best returning Group AAA senior player in the state, and Hayfield is likely to try and control the tempo as it did last year.
"I believe Hayfield is a better team, but I believe we're a lot better," Fleming coach Burrall Paye said.
Fleming has won 12 of its past 13 games, but the Colonels must guard against slipping back into a near swoon as they did when they were upset at home by Pulaski County during the streak.
What's the difference from a 6-4 start and now?
"We were playing with junior varsity kids; now they're varsity kids," Paye said. "James Stokes still isn't old enough to get a driver's license. That's how young we are."
Fitzgerald, who has emerged as a dominating big player, also has something to do with the reversal.
"He's worked hard, and that's how he's gotten better," Paye said.
Northside, ranked sixth in the state, has lost only to Salem - five times. The Vikings beat Blacksburg 61-58 in late January in an overtime game. The Indians played that one without leading scorer Jay Safford.
Can the Vikings rally from another loss to Salem?
"I think so," Northside coach Billy Pope said. "Each time people have said [after a loss to Salem] this is going to be the end of them, and we've battled back."
The past two times, Northside came back from losses to Salem to take a district semifinal victory over William Byrd and a Region III opening-round victory over Liberty.
Blacksburg had a 4-7 record at the end of January. The Indians, though, weren't healthy, with second-leading scorer Tony Wheeler recovering from a football injury and then Safford going out with pneumonia.
Once those two returned, Blacksburg took off. The Indians have won nine straight.
Two years ago, the Vikings squeezed by Blacksburg 52-50 in a first-round game at Christiansburg and then went to the state final where they lost to Nansemond River.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***