THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 1, 1995 TAG: 9502010607
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JULIE GOODRICH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Deep Creek under most circumstances lives and dies by its man-to-man defense.
Less than a month ago it proved to be their doom in a 15-point loss to Southeastern District rival Indian River.
But credit coach Benny Polk for knowing when a strategy doesn't work.
In Tuesday's rematch, Deep Creek dusted off its little-used zone defense and exacted a bit of revenge, beating the visiting No. 2 Braves, 72-59.
Indian River's loss, combined with Churchland's 81-67 win over Oscar Smith, left the Truckers (13-4, 9-1) all alone in first place in the district.
``Coach told us that they'd shoot it at us, so we played zone to see if they could hit their little jump shots,'' said Hornets senior forward Shelton Davis.
As it turns out, they couldn't. Indian River (10-4, 8-2) shot only 31 percent (22-of-70) from the field. The Braves were a dismal 22 percent (8-of-37) in the second half.
Deep Creek (9-7, 7-3) took a 12-10 lead midway through the first quarter on the first of Mike Harrington's three 3-pointers and never looked back. The Hornets increased their lead to as much as 16 in the second quarter before Indian River made a little run to close the gap to 43-35 at halftime.
The Braves came out strong in the third quarter, and point guard Doug Basnight hit two 3-pointers early to close the gap to five. Quintae McLean converted a three-point play with 1:45 left to make it 50-45, but the Hornets closed out the quarter with a layup from Arnie Powell and another Harrington 3-pointer to bump the lead back up to double digits.
Indian River got no closer than nine points in the fourth quarter, as Deep Creek cashed in several layups off broken backcourt traps.
``That first game against them we were nervous. We had a lot of young people on the team and needed some time to jell together,'' said Harrington, who finished with 16 points.
``We knew we could beat them as long as we hit our shots and played defense.''
Davis led four Deep Creek players in double figures with 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Powell added 16 points and seven rebounds.
Jason Capel pulled down a game-high 17 rebounds and was the only Indian River player in double figures in scoring with 12 points, nine in the fourth quarter.
In other Southeastern games:
Churchland 81, Oscar Smith 67: D.J. Dunbar scored 25 points and, in his season debut, Marvin Rodgers had 21 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks as the No. 5 Truckers moved into first place in the Southeastern District.
Mike Holland had 13 points and 14 assists for Churchland (13-4, 9-1). William Bonner scored 24 points, Moses Johnson added 14 and Tyrone Williams had 11 for Oscar Smith.
Great Bridge 59, Wilson 46: Torey Jordan had 14 points and 11 rebounds and the Wildcats took control by outscoring Wilson, 33-15, over the second and third quarters.
Mike Cuddyer and Tony King added 13 points each for Great Bridge.
Perez Bottoms led the Presidents with 16 points.
Norcom 66, Western Branch 55: Dominique Godfrey scored 10 points and Victor Johnson added eight points and six steals for the Greyhounds.
Mike Ponds led Norcom in rebounding with 10 and Torrence Oxendine added five rebounds and blocked five shots.
Daryl Walton scored 15 points for the Bruins. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
Deep Creek's Arnie Powell, left, looks for opening as Morgan Jackson
of Indian River attempts to put up a roadblock.
by CNB