Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503210047
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG LENGTH: Medium
The Vikings had just outlasted Caroline 64-62 at the Vines Center, when the question was put to him.
``How do you people do this to someone? Nansemond River is a very good team,'' Pope said. ``They pressure like crazy and get after it like crazy.
The Vikings will meet Nansemond River today at 2:45 p.m. Pope hopes it's not a repeat of the 1992 state championship game in which the Warriors blew out the Vikings 85-62.
``It's too hard to remember anything about their 1992 team,'' Pope said. ``Actually, I've tried to forget them.''
On Friday, the Vikings (21-7) extended their season with their trademark determination as they fought off all kinds of adversity to beat Caroline (24-4).
The Cavaliers tried to imitate Nansemond River's pattern of scoring points quickly by finishing the first quarter with a 13-3 run against Northside for a 20-13 lead.
But the Vikings rallied. After Sheldon Jones' layup and a free throw by Darrell Scott gave Caroline a 23-13 lead, Northside came back with a 15-2 run, sparked by five points from Justin Porterfield.
``We were close to a timeout,'' Pope said of when his team fell behind by 10 points. ``But you have to figure what a timeout does for you. If you're doing wrong, then you take a timeout and regroup.
``But we hit a basket [by Karim Thompson], and all of a sudden, a timeout didn't look important. This group has been through a lot of battles, and they knew what needed to be done.''
For the rest of the half, the Vikings dominated and grabbed a 30-28 halftime lead.
In the third quarfter, Caroline caught Northside, and from that point, the game began to swing back and forth through 11 lead changes.
Strangely, the Vikings weren't pushing the ball inside as they have done so often and were throwing long passes to try and beat Caroline back on defense.
``We didn't say anything about the number of 3-point shots we should take,'' said Pope, whose club was 3-of-16 on 3-point field-goal attempts. ``But we were going after it. If you don't go after it [at this point], what does that say about [confidence] to your kids?''
The Vikings were getting big points from Porterfield, who had 23 along with six assists. Inside, Dana Gibson dominated with 14 rebounds and 15 points.
More importantly, the Vikings were hitting free throws. Going into the last two minutes, Northside had made 23-of-27 free-throw attempts, and Gibson had canned 7-of-8.
The Vikings appeared to be pulling away when they moved ahead 57-51 with 3:55 left after Porterfield canned four free throws and Ben Peete made a jumper. Then Caroline hit Northside with a half-court trap press and rattled off seven straight points to regain the lead.
``That press kind of surprise us. We got a little excited,'' Porterfield said.
``That got us back in the game,'' Caroline coach Reggie Underwood said. ``We came down here today and were kind of sluggish. Maybe we should have come down last night.''
It was back-and-forth from that point until Northside took the lead for good at 61-60 on two free throws by Gibson with 1:43 left. Porterfield hit two more free throws with 1:04 left, and with 47 seconds remaining Gibson hit his first free throw to make it 64-60.
He missed the second free-throw attempt, and Northside blew three more when any one of the one-and-ones could have put the Cavaliers away. Caroline, though, also missed either from the field or line.
``I don't know what the answer was. You do everything right, but you just can't make them,'' said Gibson of the free throws that suddenly wouldn't fall for him and his teammates.
It was up to Porterfield and Maurice Garrison to put Caroline away. When Jones missed a jumper to tie, Garrison rebounded with two seconds left.
``I was just in position for it. I was trying to find Justin or Ben,'' said Garrison, who was fouled.
The senior forward missed, and Jones rebounded for Caroline. He heaved a court-length shot that was high enough but off line.
``All I could do was think about that long [78-foot] shot Alleghany hit [to beat Lord Botetourt in the district tournament],'' Pope said at the mere thought of what would have befallen his team with a repeat act.
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB