ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 24, 1996 TAG: 9611260036
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BRISTOL
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
It was only fitting that the last high school girls' basketball game Sarah Hicks and Sara Moore would play together resulted in a showpiece of their talents.
The Lord Botetourt stars gave a clinic on how to dominate a game Saturday as they led the Cavaliers to a repeat Group AA championship with a 72-41 blowout of previously unbeaten Charlottesville.
The two seniors personally outscored the Black Knights with 43 points. Between them they had 15 rebounds, three steals and 10 assists.
Hicks set the tone with a jumper on the first possession. She finished with 30 points, one point short of her best game this year. The Cavaliers (27-2) scored the game's first eight points to settle the issue early.
``I knew it would be a tough game and I had to come out, play really hard. I was ready mentally,'' said the 6-foot senior.
Botetourt's back-to-back winning performance, the first in Blue Ridge District history, gives Timesland teams seven Group AA crowns in the past nine years.
``Before the game, the seniors were crying because it was our last game,'' said Moore. ``I cried a lot because it was my last game with Sarah Hicks. We go around together off the floor. We know everything about each other on and off the court.''
So it was a little scary when Hicks, after scoring 10 points in the opening period, went crashing to the floor early in the second quarter after Charlottesville's Nichole Moore was called for a blocking foul.
Hicks was writhing in pain on the floor as coaches and trainers rushed to her aid. After a few moments, Hicks stood up and, with a dazed look, staggered to the bench.
``She hit the back of her head and had a real bad headache,'' said Botetourt coach David Wheat. ``It was very scary.''
``I kept seeing white circles, but I knew I had to come back and play tough,'' said Hicks, who re-entered the game moments later. It was bad news for Charlottesville (27-1) if the Black Knights had any ideas about a rally.
For most of the afternoon, it was a matter of Wheat changing defenses and running, to his delight, an out-of-bounds play against the Black Knights' man-to-man. Of Moore's eight assists, five came from the play that led to a Hicks basket.
``Everybody plays zone on the out of bounds,'' Wheat said. ``We have this play [where] Sarah sets a screen and then we set a pick for her.'' It worked every time.
``We've only tried that play once this year and it worked five times today,'' said Moore.
The Cavaliers also went from switching zone and man-to-man defenses to all zone. That effectively stifled most of Charlottesville's offense, which was predicated on feeding freshman Nykeia Washington in the middle and letting the 5-foot-11 center muscle her way to the basket.
Washington, who averaged 13.9 points and 11.7 rebounds during the season, had eight early points, but then scored only that many the rest of the way, including two baskets after the game was long decided in the fourth quarter.
``Before we switched [defenses], they were penetrating,'' Wheat said. ``In the zone, we were encouraging them to shoot outside.''
Before the change, Charlottesville was outrebounding Botetourt. After switching, the Cavaliers dominated to wind up with a 40-25 rebounding edge.
Wheat worried that his team might be tired after a tough semifinal victory over Blue Ridge District rival William Byrd late Friday. So he didn't want to get in a running game with the Knights.
``That's their game. The only running we wanted to do was to get back to the paint [on defense] after [we scored] a basket,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY\Staff. 1. Sarah Hicks (left) hugs Lordby CNBBotetourt teammate Sara Moore after the Cavaliers won their second
straight Group AA girls' basketball championship by beating
Charlottesville 72-41. color. 2. Kim Daugherty (center) of Lord
Botetourt goes for a loose ball with Charlottesville's Molly Handler
(left) and Nykeia Washington. KEYWORDS: 2DA