THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 1, 1995 TAG: 9502010574
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATTI WALSH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Indian River's De Shawn Whitley prides herself in getting the ball to the open player.
But when it's crunch time, she makes sure she's the one who's open, with the ball in her hands.
That's just what she did Friday night against Wilson with 16 fourth-quarter points in a 62-57 come-from-behind victory that boosted the Braves to fifth place in the Southeastern District.
The senior shooting guard hit four 3-pointers in finishing with a season-high 24 points, and also had eight steals, seven rebounds and four assists. For her efforts, she earned The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star's female athlete-of-the-week honor.
``We were down by 16 in the fourth quarter,'' coach Gavin Harris said. ``We needed to set up a certain defense and we did a lot of trapping. Once we got the ball, we looked for her.
``We decided to go to her. Once we realized she was on, the other girls decided to go to her also. They were giving up shots just to find De Shawn.''
With a box-and-one defense on Whitley, her teammates went to work. They set screens for her man, and she took over the offense from behind the arc.
``I just took the shot,'' she said. ``I knew that Quiana (White) and Latisha (Grevious) would be there to rebound if I missed.''
But she didn't.
``I shot it and the first one went in,'' she said. ``So I said, `OK, I'll try this again.' ''
And she did it again. And again. And again. Before they knew it, the Braves had a 30-9 fourth-quarter run that sent them home with a key district victory.
``You can tell when she's in one of her zones,'' Harris said. ``She starts it off with a strong layup going to the basket - right or left, it doesn't matter. Once she gets it going, once she gets that first basket, she could miss two, but she could come back and hit six in a row.
``And that particular day, we were down by 16 and all of a sudden we were down by seven. She realized that the other team, once we got the ball past halfcourt, they were letting her drive.
``She decided, `Hey, I'm not going to drive, I'm going to can that 3-pointer.' She was just in a zone. She did not hesitate at all to shoot her shot.
``In the third and fourth quarter, De Shawn Whitley wants the ball. She gets that look in her eyes.
``She's going to get it, and the girls are looking for her.'' by CNB