Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 19, 1994 TAG: 9402190159
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Derrick Hines, William Fleming High School's 5-foot-8 do-everything guard, came up with the loose ball with 48 seconds left in overtime. He promptly put the ball where it belonged - in the basket.
Those points put the Colonels up for good, and they held on to edge Cave Spring 82-80 in Roanoke Valley District boys' basketball.
The victory was the seventh in eight games for William Fleming (13-5 overall, 5-3 in the district). But the bigger winner was the Colonels' Roanoke rival, Patrick Henry. The loss eliminated Cave Spring (9-9, 4-3) from the district race and gave PH (14-5, 6-2) the title.
"I just realized I had to get the ball; the team was counting on me to get the ball," said Hines, who had four points in the extra period and 30 for the game. "I crashed the boards hard. A lot of teams don't count on me going inside [for the rebound]. A lot of teams don't block me out."
Hines' basket gave Fleming an 81-80 lead.
But the Knights were far from finished. They would have three more chances - but each time something went wrong:
With 15 seconds left, James Irvin missed a jumper that would have put Cave Spring in front.
With 13 seconds left, Fleming's Keath Hampton missed a free throw, but the rebound got away from Mark Beagle and Hampton ended up with the ball. He was fouled again with seven seconds to go and made the front end of a one-and-one to extend the Colonels' lead to two points.
"It was just rolling and I picked it up; I knew we had to have it [the rebound]," Hampton said. "When I first got back to the foul line, I was thinking of the shots I missed. Then I put more height on the ball so it would go over the rim and in."
And just before the final buzzer, Hines was whistled for a foul on Irvin. Had Irvin hit both free throws, he would have tied the score. But when the first shot bounced off the rim, the victory belonged to the Colonels.
"You make your own breaks," said Rick Crotts, Cave Spring's coach. "We played hard enough to win. Fleming knows they had a battle on their hands. We're going to have a good game in the [district] tournament.
"And we had three real chances to win the game. That's all you can want."
Each team had opportunities at the end of regulation. With the score tied at 77, Cave Spring was holding for the last shot when Dusty Beekman was called for traveling with 28 seconds left.
So the Colonels set up for a shot, but Hines' pass inside was knocked away with 3 seconds to go.
That gave the Knights' Irvin enough time to dribble to halfcourt, where his shot bounced out of the basket.
All that came after Matt Matheny capped a Cave Spring comeback by hitting a 3-pointer with 1 minute, 21 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Matheny finished with 25 points, leading four Knights in double figures.
by CNB