ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603060015
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RUSTBURG
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
Like their namesakes, Liberty's Minutemen were sharpshooters Friday night.
Unlike at Bunker Hill, where colonists were told to wait until they could see the whites of the British soldiers' eyes, Liberty needed only a peek at an opponent in a Salem uniform.
The Minutemen fired a 16-minute volley at the Spartans in the opening half on the way to an 83-66 victory in the Region III boys' basketball semifinals.
Liberty will play Northside at 7:30 tonight for the regional title, with both teams advancing to the Group AA tournament. The game has been shifted to the Vines Center at Liberty University.
The Minutemen (21-0) hit 17 of 28 shots from the field in the first half. They made seven of their first 10 from beyond the 3-point arc and built a 48-22 lead at intermission.
``I was shaking my head at the way we were shooting, and I know they were shaking their heads,'' said Mark Hanks, Liberty's coach.
With the second half about to start, the officials had to conduct a search for the game ball, which Salem had used in warmups.
``When they found it, I noticed it was a Liberty ball,'' said Charlie Morgan, the Spartans' coach. ``I told the officials no wonder they shot the lights out of it.''
Still, Salem (16-9), a team that played only one senior, didn't quit despite falling behind by as many as 30 points.
The Spartans closed to 70-58 with 3:59 left on Kwam Lewis' layup. Salem then started running out of players because of foul problems and running out of time as Liberty got a follow shot by Robert Carson.
The sophomore followed with a steal and fed Cheney Preston, who made a layup and free throw with 3:29 to play as the Minutemen opened a 17-point lead.
Hanks wasn't surprised Salem rallied.
``I told the kids at halftime I had seen Salem play [George Washington]-Danville when they came back most of the way and then last week when they came back from a long way down to beat Northside,'' said the Liberty coach.
But there was no slowing the Minutemen, who are ranked No.1 in the Associated Press Group AA poll.
``We hadn't played a game since last Friday and we were just hungry to play,'' said guard J.J. Coles, who paced Liberty with 20 points. ``We like to get our shots so quickly that we don't have patience.
``We're not used to holding it like we did at the end,'' added Coles, whose team has won all but two of its games by more than 10 points.
Sophomore Raymond Arrington added 19 points - 17 in the first half, when he hit three 3-pointers.
``We just kept on shooting and they were falling,'' Arrington said. ``Most of the time when you shoot a lot of 3s, there will be nights like this when you make a high percentage.''
Liberty's Gregg Reynolds held Salem's leading scorer, Herschel Thomas, without a point in the first half. The sophomore guard got only three shots. In the Spartans' rally, Thomas had 16 points and tied center Eric Grinnell as Salem's scoring leader.
``We got down too early and they're a great team,'' Thomas said of the Minutemen. ``They played nothing like this when we faced them in camp [last summer]. But we'll be back.''
Liberty wound up hitting 10 of 21 shots from 3-point range and 28 of 61 overall. The Minutemen also got 12 points from workhorse Neil Roop, and Preston came off the bench for 13.
Salem never got into its tempo, as illustrated by the fact that playmaker Sam Lazzaro wound up tied with Roop for rebounding honors with six.
``We thought tempo was a big key,'' said Hanks, who didn't want the Spartans to spread the floor. ``They got some easy baskets in the second half when they came back, but they were forced to play a fast-paced game then. I don't think they wanted to play that fast.''
Salem was 29-of-48 from the floor, but committed 14 turnovers in the first half against Liberty's vaunted press. The Minutemen had 11 turnovers in the second half when Salem rallied.
see microfilm for box score
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff Gregg Reynolds of Libertyby CNBoutjumps everybody while fighting for a rebound against Salem.
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