Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 5, 1994 TAG: 9402050178
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And thanks to her late-game exploits, Pulaski County edged Cave Spring 54-53 in their Roanoke Valley District girls' basketball showdown.
The victory was the ninth in a row for the Cougars (11-3 overall, 7-0 in the district). And it gives them a two-game advantage in the loss column with five district contests remaining.
For the Knights (14-2, 6-2), it was the second loss of the season to Pulaski County.
McConnell saw to that defeat when she dribbled the length of the floor and put in a layup with seven seconds remaining.
"I was just trying to get it up on the rim so we could get a rebound," said McConnell, who finished with a season-high 18 points. "We had four people who could rebound.
"We can run the fast break. We didn't want them to get set on defense. If they had been back there, then we might have called a timeout. I really didn't even know we had any left."
Not a bad strategy when you're down by one point with 16 seconds to go. Except McConnell made the battle for rebounding position academic by hitting the transition basket.
"It was a heart-breaker; the kids played well enough to win," said Linda Long, Cave Spring's coach. "It came down to playing defense the last 11 seconds of the game.
"Aimee [Beightol] almost stole the ball on the throw-in to McConnell. But then we didn't have anyone go after the ball."
After McConnell's basket, the Knights had time for one shot and they tried for a transition score of their own. But Beightol didn't get off a shot until after the final buzzer.
"We work on that in practice," said Long, who elected not to use a timeout after Pulaski County took the lead for the last time. "We have a drill where there is six or seven seconds left and we have to get the ball up the floor and score. So we just wanted to get the ball up the court [after the score]. Another second and we might have scored."
Before McConnell's heroics, the Knights' Cheryl Rhodes set the frenzy of the last 16 seconds in motion by scoring. The last of her season- and game-high 24 points put Cave Spring up 53-52.
Then, faced with a decision on whether or not to call timeout, the Cougars ran.
"Truthfully, it looked like running with it in transition was the way to go," said Rod Reedy, Pulaski's coach. "I don't know if Cave Spring was anticipating a timeout or not."
The final seconds mirrored the final quarter, which featured six lead changes, including five in the final 2 1/2 minutes.
With barely a minute to play, Kim Cruise put the Cougars in front 52-51 when she scored on an uncontested layup along the left baseline.
"They were triple-teaming Jodie [Hallett, Pulaski County's leading scorer], so she couldn't get the ball," Cruise said. "I didn't have anybody on me. I really thought they would come over and cover me."
That basket erased the lead the Knights took when Beightol hit both ends of a one-and-one - with a Pulaski County timeout in between - with 1 minute, 50 seconds left.
McConnell started the late-game lead switches by hitting a 3-pointer with 2 1/2 minutes remaining, putting the Cougars up 50-49.
That basket capped a mini-comeback by Pulaski. The Cougars had seen their 42-40 lead after three quarters disappear in the face of a 7-0 run by the Knights.
Cave Spring led 28-23 at halftime. But a three-point play by Hallett and a 3-pointer by McConnell in the first 1 1/2 minutes put the Cougars back in front.
"We were just trying to get back in the game," said Hallett, who finished with 12 points despite sitting on the bench in foul trouble for most of the first half. "Things kind of got out of hand at the end of the first half."
The Knights outscored Pulaski 12-2 in the last five minutes of the second quarter to build their lead at intermission. Rhodes and Allison Beightol scored four points each in the surge.
The Cougars led by as many as seven points early in the opening period. But when Hallett picked up her second foul and left the game with 3:09 remaining in the period, they started having trouble maintaining the lead.
That and Rhodes' eight points in the quarter allowed the Knights to stay close as they cut the deficit to three by the period's end. \
see microfilm for box score
by CNB