THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010631
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE MICHAUX, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COURTLAND LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Franklin head coach James Jones didn't say a word.
He simply let Sidney Gainey go to the line and do what he does best - nail the shots.
With five secondsleft, Gainey drained a pair of free throws to lift Franklin to a 50-49 win over Greensville in the first round of the Group AA Region I boys basketball tournament at Southampton High School Tuesday night.
Franklin, the Bay Rivers District's third seed will face top-seeded Nansemond River, which had a first-round bye, in the semifinals Friday night. Second-seeded Lakeland topped Brunswick, 69-62, in the other first-round game Tuesday for its first region tournament victory. The Cavaliers will face the Southside District's No. 1 seed, Bluestone, at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
With less than two minutes to play, Gainey hit his only 3-pointer of the night to close the gap to 49-48.
Julius Smith missed the front end of a one-and-one and Josh Freeman grabbed the rebound to give Franklin possession with 32 seconds to play.
Greensville had been able to force turnovers throughout the game, but during the final 30 seconds the Broncos wouldn't budge.
Perry Manning fouled Gainey three straight times as the Broncos worked their way down the court. Finally, with 12 seconds left, Wade Williams looked to Linwood Joyner instead of Gainey on the inbounds pass.
Joyner missed a wide-open layup, but Greensville knocked the ball out of bounds and Franklin had another crack at it with seven seconds left.
``I told Sidney to drive to the basket and pull up,'' Jones said. ``We figured they would foul and you don't want to take the chance of him getting the charge.''
Gainey did exactly as told and Zeno Bullock sent him to line.
``I didn't say a word to him about the free throws,'' Jones said. ``I didn't need to.''
Michael Stokes got one shot off for the Eagles as time ran out, but it fell short.
The Eagles took as much as a 10-point lead midway through the second period as the Broncos continued to turn the ball over and rush shots.
``It seemed to take us some time to get going,'' Jones said. ``We made a lot of mistakes, but not enough to let it get out of hand.''
Williams converted two three-point plays to close the first half and the Broncos went into the locker room trailing by just one, 23-22.
``I was ready tonight,'' said Williams, who totaled 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. ``Me and Josh (Freeman) were just trying to get down low. I was just going to crash the boards and it paid off.''
Sebastian Yates, Brian Baker and Amon Cross each hit treys for Lakeland in the span of two minutes in the final period of the Cavaliers' matchup with Brunswick. That opened the game up and gave the Cavaliers a 63-55 edge with 2:39 to play.
The Bulldogs battled back to 65-62 with a 3-pointer from Tito Tyler and two buckets from Demarcus Walker with 1:32 left. But they didn't have time to do anything more than foul.
Baker and Yates each hit free throws down the stretch to give the Cavaliers the win. The last time the Cavaliers were in the region tournament was in 1993, and they were eliminated in the first round.
``I don't know how it feels really, we haven't really thought about it,'' Lakeland coach John Fuller said. ``It didn't hit me until after the (district tournament) championship game with Nansemond River, that none of these kids had ever played in a championship game before that. So this is all new.'' by CNB