Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 8, 1994 TAG: 9403080132
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Northside guard Nathan Hungate ran loose quite a bit Monday night. Such is the case when a player scores 35 points.
His efforts at the beginning of the third quarter were particularly noteworthy, and what he did in those few minutes allowed the Vikings to shake loose of Blacksburg.
Northside then hung on for a 67-62 win in the Group AA boys' basketball quarterfinals at Christiansburg High School.
The victory gives Northside (22-5) its sixth shot at the only team to defeat it this season - Salem (23-1). The Blue Ridge District rivals meet Friday in the state tournament semifinals at University Hall in Charlottesville.
Salem reached the rematch by routing Graham 89-32 in its opening-round game.
Blacksburg (13-8) saw its nine-game winning steak and its season end at the hands of Hungate and the Vikings.
With Northside leading 37-33 to start the third quarter, Hungate went to work. He turned a driving layup into a three-point play 18 seconds into the period. Twenty seconds later, he plucked a rebound and went the length of the court for an easy lay-in.
Fifty seconds after that, he dished off underneath to Steve Garrison, who scored.
In just over 1 1/2 minutes, the Vikings had rolled off seven straight points to lead 44-33, forcing Blacksburg to call time out.
Hungate scored five of the points and assisted on the other two. To him, he was just doing his job.
"I'm a senior. This could have been my last game," said Hungate, a 6-foot-1 guard. "We have a lot of young players on this team. I realize that sometimes I have to step up and take charge. I have to take it to the basket and get the points or get fouled."
For Blacksburg coach Bob Trear, who had worried before the game about keeping the Vikings from driving the lane, seeing Hungate take over was a nightmare come true.
"We let the tempo get quicker than we wanted to in the third quarter," Trear said. "In the first three minutes [of the quarter], they turned Hungate loose, too. That was the biggest reason we went 10 down."
Hungate finished the quarter with 10 points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal. And the Vikings, after having led by 12, had a seemingly commanding 53-43 lead.
But the Indians rediscovered their inside game in the final period and climbed back into the contest. Five points by Tony Wheeler in the first minute of the quarter cut the lead in half.
Then two baskets by Jay Safford cut the Northside lead to 54-52 with 3:20 left.
"When we could get the ball inside, we could score, but we didn't get it inside as much as we usually do," Safford said. "They put a lot of pressure on the guards. That led to some turnovers, and that hurt us."
Two other things that hurt the Indians were a rebound by Dana Gibson and the Vikings' free-throw shooting down the stretch.
With three minutes left and Northside still clinging to its two-point lead, Garrison missed the front-end of a one-and-one. Unlike the three previous times in the quarter when Blacksburg plucked a missed free throw out of the air, this time Gibson got it.
He quickly went back up with the ball and scored the Vikings' only field goal of the period. It expanded the lead to four and put Northside on its way to victory.
"I was just trying to rebound on offense," Gibson said. "Coach [Billy Pope] has told us we can get the rebound off of missed free throws. I just happened to get a good jump."
Clutch free-throw shooting by Hungate (7-for-8) and Justin Porterfield (4-for-4) over the final 2:15 sealed the win.
"Of course there was [pressure]," said Porterfield, who went 0-for-8 from the field. "I just had to get up there and concentrate. We've been doing it in practice. I'm pretty used to it."
Wheeler led Blacksburg with 20 points, including seven in the fourth quarter to key the comeback. Safford added 19 and Ben Araman 17.
by CNB