THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994 TAG: 9406130196
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940613 LENGTH: NORFOLK
From morning till evening, hundreds of pint-sized hoopsters burned up and down four courts in the ODU field house and another court in an auxiliary gym nearby as part of the Virginia State games.
{REST} ``We're playing something like 64 ballgames, on five different courts,'' said Willie Brown, who organized the basketball tournament.
A total of 35 boys and girls teams, ranging in age from 10-and-under to 16-and-under, dribbled into ODU for the tournament. Many of the teams were wearing the logo of the Boo Williams Summer League - the area's largest AAU program - but there were a handful of entries from Richmond, Charlottesville and Spotsylvania County in Northern Virginia.
Typical of the action was the gold medal game in the boys 13-and-under division, played in the practice gym in the athletic administration building Sunday afternoon.
Trailing 48-41 with 2:03 left, the members of a Boo Williams entry from Virginia Beach are told they have to stop trading baskets, and start putting their opponents from Hampton on the free-throw line.
But Hampton's up to the task. After a Beach bucket, Hampton's Justin Blazer is fouled, and calmly sinks two free throws. That gives Hampton a 50-43 lead with 1:36 left.
Just a few seconds later, Blazer - the smallest player on the court - strikes again, stepping in front of an errant pass for a steal. Again, he's fouled, and hits one of two to put it out of reach for Hampton.
With 42 seconds left, Brown walks into the gym with two plastic bags full of medals. It'll be gold for Hampton, silver for Virginia Beach.
``We really won it with guard play, pressing the ball and creating turnovers while not turning it over ourselves,'' says Hampton coach James Daniel.
The Hampton squad, also playing under the Boo Williams banner, had to win three games to take the medal. Blazer, for one, says he wasn't surprised they did.
``After we won the first game yesterday, we knew we could beat everybody else,'' said Blazer, 13.
Spoken like a true medal winner. Blazer draped his gold medal around his neck and headed back over to the field house, where dozens of others were strolling around with new neckware as well.
One of them, silver medalist Travis Wells of Newport News, summed up his experience this way:
``It was pretty fun,'' said Wells, 10. ``But it got kind of serious when we got to the final game.''
by CNB