Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 5, 1994 TAG: 9402050217
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JIMMY ROBERTSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
For the second consecutive night, the Liberty Minutemen almost fell victim to the curse of being ranked.
Almost.
After squeaking by Buckingham County by one point on Thursday, the state's fourth-ranked Group AA team used some timely free-throw shooting and a powerful inside game to wear down stubborn Brookville 80-70 in a Seminole District game.
Liberty (13-2 overall and in the district) led 61-56 after the third quarter and appeared to be taking control of the game, but Brookville would not go away.
The Bees' 6-foot-7 Steven Muncher hit a basket inside to cut the deficit to three, and then Jason Gorsline's steal and layup made it 61-60.
Brookville got no closer.
Liberty regained control and took a 74-68 lead on Todd Brookshier's layup. Brookshier then hit two free throws after a Brookville miss to extend the lead to eight with 1 minute, 16 seconds left in the game.
The Bees cut the lead to six after Muncher made two free throws, but they were forced to foul, and Liberty's Bruce Elder and J.J. Coles each hit two free throws down the stretch to put away the game.
"I thought that we wore them down a little in the second half," said Mark Hanks, the Minutemen's head coach. "I usually play 10 guys, and it had an effect on Brookville tonight."
Most of the credit should be given to the 6-6 Elder (21 points) and his 6-5 teammate David Ross (13) for containing Muncher, who was playing in his first game since injuring his right ankle early in the season. Muncher scored 20 points in the game, but only five of those came in the fourth quarter, and he fouled out late in the game.
"We knew he had been hurt," Elder said. "We wanted to take it to him to see if was ready to play, and I think that we eventually wore him down."
The Bees made 45 percent of their field-goal attempts but got virtually nothing from their bench and played the starters most of the way. Liberty's bench outscored the Brookville reserves 28-8.
"Their bench really overwhelmed us, and that was the difference in the game," said Al Berngstorf, Brookville's coach. "We've had so many injuries which have hurt us, and I had switched earlier in the week to an eight-man rotation because we were not getting enough production, so all this really took its toll on us tonight.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
Memo: ***CORRECTION***