THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501290209
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
With two seconds remaining and Maury inbounding the ball beneath its basket, Churchland's Quintin Morris knew he had a tough task in covering the Commodores' Shaun Jackson.
When Jackson got the inbounds pass, Morris decided he'd rather get beat by Jackson at the foul line than on a layup.
There was contact. Jackson's shot never reached the rim.
And much to the joy of Morris, there was no whistle.
Churchland, South Hampton Roads' fifth-ranked team, escaped with a 49-48 victory over No. 6 Maury Saturday night at Maury in a non-district game.
Both squads are 12-4.
``When he caught the ball, my heart was thumping,'' said Morris, who gives up four inches to the 6-foot-7 Jackson. ``I thought they'd call it for sure.''
So did Jackson, who looked to officials Charlie Woodson and Ken Wren for help, but to no avail.
``They just ran off the court,'' Jackson said. ``If he hadn't fouled me, we'd have won.''
The Commodores had clawed back from a 45-40 deficit behind the sharp play of point guard Ike Richardson, who scored Maury's last seven points and gave his team a 48-47 lead on a three-point play with 52 seconds left.
But Churchland responded with a short jumper by Jason Lewis with 22 seconds remaining to take a 49-48 lead.
Richardson had a good look at the basket with five seconds left. But his running jumper in the lane rolled out. Morris grabbed the rebound, but lost his footing and was called for traveling as he fell to the floor.
Both teams called two timeouts as Maury set up its final play.
``We gave 'em plenty of time to set it up,'' laughed Churchland coach Mac Carroll. ``And there was no more contact on that play than there was all night. I thought Quintin got a lot of ball.''
Richardson led all scorers with 21 points, his fourth consecutive 20-plus game, while Jackson finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
D.J. Dunbar, Mike Holland and Dion Langley each had 11 points for Churchland and Lewis added 10. by CNB