Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 18, 1994 TAG: 9411190003
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWIGHT FOXX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RIDGEWAY LENGTH: Medium
The Spartans saw a 28-point lead cut to four in the final period, but survived to advance to Saturday's Group AA Region III girls' basketball championship game with a 67-56 victory over Jefferson Forest on Thursday night at Magna Vista High School.
Salem will play William Byrd, a 55-49 winner over Martinsville, on Saturday at Northside High School. Salem (19-5), regardless of Saturday's outcome, has clinched a spot in next week's state tournament.
The Blue Ridge District's regular-season and tournament champion took a 10-0 lead in the game's first 41/2 minutes and led 24-4 after one period, thanks to 11 points by Tina Slate.
Jefferson Forest, which was 20-2 entering the game, looked more like a 2-20 team in the first half. It turned over the ball 13 times in the opening period and was outscored 16-0 during a five-minute stretch that ended early in the second period.
Salem led 34-6 with 4 minutes, 57 seconds remaining in the second quarter and the game appeared out of hand. Dee Wright, the Spartans' coach, started substituting freely at that point.
At halftime, the Spartans led 36-15 and the game still appeared to be a mismatch.
But the second half turned interesting. Jefferson Forest, which starts five sophomores, drained three 3-pointers in the third period, including two by Kimmie Reeves, to cut Salem's lead to 12 entering the final period.
"They [the Cavaliers] played an incredible second half," said Kim Simmons, Jefferson Forest's coach.
The Cavaliers kept coming and coming at the Spartans, closing to 58-54 when Melinda Minnick banked in a layup with 2:17 to play. Minnick scored all 14 of her points in the final period.
"She was nervous [in the first half], plus we couldn't get the ball past half-court," Simmons said in reference to 17 first-half turnovers. "We took better care of the ball in the second half."
But the Cavaliers squandered a chance get closer when Minnick was called for traveling before a great pass underneath to wide-open teammate Krystal Reeves that would have cut their deficit to two.
Salem's Marilyn Huang then came up with the big play of the game when she made a looping, fast-break layup over Minnick to stretch the Blue Ridge champs' lead to 60-54 with 1:48 remaining.
"They were playing a full-court, man-to-man defense and I knew even though she was taller I was quicker and I could beat her off the dribble," said Huang, who finished with 12 points.
Huang also made another basket to put the game seemingly out of reach at 62-54 with 90 seconds left.
Hitting five of six free throws in the game's final 30 seconds helped Salem nail it down.
"We called it off too soon," Wright said of replacing her starters with the 28-point lead. "We should have kept the first five, six players in there longer."
Forward Shellie Johnson, who led Salem with 23 points, breathed a sigh of relief at not choking away the game.
"We didn't box out on defense and we lost a little emotion," she said. "I knew we could do it [hang on]. We were just a little out of sync. The second half was so tense. Our money [state berth] was on the line."
Salem (67)
Slate 4 5-6 13, Johnson 9 5-5 23, Palmer 2 2-2 6, Huang 5 2-6 12, Williams 2 5-7 9, Driscoll 0 2-5 2, Bryson 0 2-3 2. 22 23-34 67.
Jefferson Forest (56)
Childress 3 1-2 8, Reeves 3 2-2 10, Minnick 6 2-2 14, Lowe 1 0-0 2, Sloan 1 2-3 4, Wilson 1 0-0 2, Campbell 1 2-2 4, Reeves 6 0-0 12. 22 9-11 56.
Salem||24--12--12--19-67
Jefferson Forest||-4--11--21--20-56
Three-point goals: Reeves 2, Childress. Total fouls: Salem 14, Jefferson Forest 25. Fouled out: Reeves.
Both Huang and Johnson said the team did not start looking towards Saturday's game despite the huge lead.
"They outhustled us," Huang said. "We were not getting back on defense."
Coach Wright said her team was in a great rhythm at the beginning of the game and shot 50 percent (15-30) in the opening half.
"The rhythm faded because we had too many substitutions at one time," Wright said. "That's my fault."
Jefferson Forest (16-31) shot 51.6 percent in the second half to get back in the game.
by CNB