ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 18, 1996 TAG: 9603180129
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: HIGH SCHOOLS
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
They were perhaps the finest boys' basketball state tournaments ever played in Virginia.
From the crowds' viewpoint, three championship games decided by a total of 11 points, including one in overtime, made for an enjoyable Saturday.
Two teams finished the season unbeaten. George Washington-Danville, rated eighth in the country by USA Today, gave veteran coach Harry Johnson a fitting retirement by beating Hopewell for the Group AAA championship.
Liberty went unbeaten as Mark Hanks established himself as one of the best young coaches in the state.
How strong was Liberty's feat?
During the year, the Minutemen zipped through the Seminole District at breakneck speed with a run-and-gun game. It was something they did quite well because they had the best collection of shooters and quickest athletes in the Seminole. No one could challenge them and they didn't have a close game.
In the tournaments, Hanks knew teams like Lakeland (Suffolk), Gate City and Nansemond River (Suffolk) awaited his squad. They were bigger and just as athletic. To run at open throttle would have been a disaster, so Liberty went to a more deliberate game and proved it could run a half-court offense.
In beating Lakeland 53-50 for the title, there were times when Liberty seemed to keep the ball forever, searching and searching for the right shot. Hanks even had to tell his team to look a little more openly for the shot.
The four weeks of tournaments left a lot of impressions. Here are one writer's opinion of the high moments in four glorious weeks:
OVERACHIEVERS: Northside was the best at this. No one at the Group AA tournament who hadn't seen the Vikings in previous games could believe the team made the state semifinals. It was another great job by coach Billy Pope, who had two great guards in Justin Porterfield and Ben Peete, but not a lot of muscle or experience on the front line.
Also, give credit to Bath County for upsetting Glenvar in the Pioneer District championship game and to Grayson County for making the Group A tournament after a late-season slump. Both Richard McElwee (Bath County) and John Ayers (Grayson County) did yeoman's work as coaches.
MOST AMAZED: The Mount Vernon gym in Alexandria, which seats 4,400 and was home to Pope when he played high school basketball there, was built in the 1960s, but has been kept up over the years.
Some Roanoke Valley athletic administrators who were visiting for the first round of the Group AAA tournament wondered why schools in the Roanoke area have nothing comparable.
The answer is that whenever a new school or gym is planned, it's out of date before it's built. This error will be repeated with the new proposed gym for Northside and the one for the new Cave Spring High School because they'll be too small to handle the crowds that now follow high school basketball.
BEST GAME: William Fleming's 100-87 overtime victory over J.E.B. Stuart (Falls Church) in the first round of the Group AAA tournament was easily the best game.
A close runner-up, though, was Liberty knocking off Nansemond River 59-58 on Gregg Reynolds' last-second shot from about five feet out.
Nansemond River coach Spencer Mayfield told reporters he had driven 165 miles [to scout Liberty-Gate City] and knew everything there was to know about the Minutemen. He insisted Liberty had no inside game.
Oh really? Since when were guards excluded from being part of an inside game? I once watched a guard post-up against a bigger team the whole night and pull an incredible upset.
If Mayfield feels Liberty has no inside game, I missed something in the Minutemen's victory over Lakeland when they dominated the boards with guard J.J. Coles getting eight rebounds.
In third place, GW-Danville's 82-75 Group AAA semifinal victory over Indian River (Chesapeake) was one to savor. The Eagles won despite the fact two of their best players fouled out.
BEST RUN BY A PLAYER: William Fleming's James Stokes, who averaged better than 28 points a game in the Northwest Region and Group AAA tournament, wins.
Overlooked is Liberty sophomore Raymond ``Peanut'' Arrington, who scored 44 points in three Group AA games, which included hitting 18 of 20 free throws. Not bad for a 10th-grader.
BEST PLAYER: No doubt about this one, it's Indian River's Jason Capel, a 6-foot-7 forward-center with 31 points in an 82-75 semifinal loss to GW-Danville. And he's only a sophomore.
His father, Jeff Capel Sr., coaches Old Dominion University and might go with his son as a package deal to some top program. Jason is a blue-chipper who can be a building block to a college program.
MOST DESERVING: GW-Danville's Johnson is one of the all-time good-guy coaches who never had won a state title.
His Eagles rank among the best teams I've seen in high school basketball. I still would pick the 1988 Patrick Henry team over them, but if you matched up those two teams, it would be a very tense game.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 linesby CNB