ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 21, 1996 TAG: 9612230080
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Salem High School's basketball team hit on an unassailable defensive combination Friday night: an almost foul-free press.
The Spartans won for the first time this season as they turned on the press in the fourth quarter to stop Christiansburg 64-49 in a Blue Ridge District game in Salem.
The trapping Spartans caused nine of the Demons' 19 turnovers in an 11-minute squeeze play that carried to the final horn. They did it while being whistled for three fouls.
The payoff was a closing run of 31-12.
``It's been a trying week for all of us,'' said Salem coach Charlie Morgan, who presides over a team that is 1-3 overall and 1-1 in the league. ``We needed this in the worst kind of way.''
The favorites to win the Blue Ridge had started the week with two losses. The first was a double-overtime digestive distress special against Blacksburg. The second was a setback to archrival Cave Spring as three Salem starters took the night off because of a disciplinary matter. One of the three, guard Herschel Thomas, still was in street clothes Friday after being been given further time to ponder the virtue of gentlemanly behavior.
``Sportsmanship has to return to the game,'' Morgan said.
There was no lack of sportsmanship Friday in a crisply played affair between two surprising teams, Christiansburg because it hadn't lost and Salem because it hadn't won.
Christiansburg hung right with Salem for three quarters, rallying around 6-foot-6 junior post player Michael Kazee, who was hard to stop while scoring 12 of his 16 points in the first half.
That changed after the break.
``We were giving him too many good looks at the basket in the first half,'' Salem's Andy Beach said. ``We started getting some help from the weak side and shutting him down.''
The guy Christiansburg (5-1 overall, 1-1 district) couldn't stop was Beach, a red-headed hotshot who sank two 3-pointers while going 7-for-14 from the floor en route to a game-high 25 points.
``My shots haven't been falling the past three games,'' he said. ``Coach Morgan told me to keep shooting them, that eventually they'd fall. I listened to him.''
It's a lesson Morgan has been trying to impart all season.
``This is the kind of team that's been like, if we can't get our first option then hey, it's over,'' he said. ``It isn't over. You can't give up. You must persevere.''
Eric Grinnell, Salem's post player, scored 13 points but had a difficult evening after suffering a lower abdominal injury. He had been one of the suspended three along with Kwam Lewis, whose contributions against the Demons were 10 points and eight rebounds. Marshall Woolridge also scored 10.
Salem made 13 of 18 free-throw attempts with Beach going 5-for-6. Christiansburg's leading free-throw shooter, Eric Lucas, made all five of his free throws on the way to 16 points. The Demons went 5-for-7 from the stripe.
``They press like they did and we don't even get into the one-and-one,'' Christiansburg coach Gerald Thompson said. ``We'll have to find a way to get to that line.''
It looks like Salem had found a way to start winning.
``Keep the faith,'' Morgan told Beach as he headed out into the cold night. ``You have to believe.'' see microfilm for box score
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY STAFF Salem's Marshall Woolridge takes aby CNBloose ball Friday at Salem High School. Woolridge scored 10 points
for the Spartans.