Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503210063
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG LENGTH: Medium
William Monroe's 6-foot-7 center scored 30 points and led the Dragons to a 51-46 victory and the Group A boys' basketball championship Saturday at Liberty University's Vines Center.
White scored the first 11 points for the team from Stanardsville and 19 of its 25 in the opening half. Glenvar's chances of repeating the heroics of the Highlanders' 1975 team, which came from nowhere to win the Group AA title, disappeared under White's barrage.
``When we doubled down or tripled down, he still made the big plays,'' said Art Lawrence, Glenvar's coach.
``He hardly misses, even when two or three people have a hand in his face,'' said Highlanders point guard Nick Varney.
It was no surprise the 1994 Group A champions went to White early.
``They were trying to make a point,'' Lawrence said. ``There was a message in there that they were going with the horse who had gotten them this far.''
``We try to get it to Percy, but we don't say, `Go for him all the time.' Our players look for him, and sometimes they look for him too much,'' said Randy Michie, who was coaching his last basketball game at William Monroe.
``It doesn't always happen. Every now and then'' they emphasize getting the ball inside, White said. ``But today, I felt I'd need help to beat them. It takes five.''
Glenvar (20-9) didn't believe he would get that help. So late in the game, the Highlanders played it that way.
William Monroe (27-2) led by two points after Matt Akinson scored all five of his points in a run for the Highlanders to make it 46-44 with 1:04 left.
To that point, Glenvar had been fouling everyone but White and it had resulted in a couple of missed free throws, allowing the Highlanders to rally.
After Atkinson's barrage, though, Varney fouled White and the big man dropped in a pair of free throws with 1:01 left.
The Highlanders didn't make that mistake again, but it didn't matter. James Williams' short jumper sliced Monroe's lead to 48-46. The Highlanders then picked on Travis Knight and he hit a free throw with 22 seconds left.
Then, Varney missed a 3-point attempt to tie and Monroe's Anthony Wynn hit a layup at the other end to wrap up the title.
Glenvar seemed to have things going its way earlier. The Highlanders took the lead twice in the third quarter on 3-point goals by Corey Willis.
``It was still hard to keep matching White with jumpers,'' said Willis, who knew the William Monroe star was taking higher-percentage shots.
Down by a point going into the fourth quarter, Glenvar started committing turnovers. White scored five consecutive points during the stretch to help the Dragons open a five-point lead.
``We just made some bad passes. We might have gotten a little jumpy,'' Varney said.
``We were trying to kick it in and then kick it back out for a 3-point shot,'' Lawrence said. ``I don't know if they were intercepting the passes or we did a bad job.''
One big difference between this game and the semifinals for the Highlanders was Monroe didn't send Glenvar to the free-throw line. Atkinson's three shots in the fourth quarter were the only attempts for the Highlanders. He made all three.
White, on the other hand, hit eight of nine from the line.
``I work on foul shooting every day because we felt we'd have to shoot extremely well from the line to win the state,'' White said.
White's 30 points gave him 83 in three games, breaking the tournament record of 82 by Suffolk's Tony Smith in 1987.
``He's carried us, but other guys have stepped up and done a job,'' Michie said. ``They're role players, but they're there when needed.''
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by CNB