THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602010439
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBIN BRINKLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Eighth-ranked Deep Creek broke into the top 10 this week on the strength of six straight victories over mostly ordinary opponents.
The Hornets' reputation was built mainly on close losses to No. 1 Maury (42-41) and No. 2 Indian River (66-62 and 57-51).
Those games proved Deep Creek worthiness as an opponent, but the Hornets were still one victory shy of validating themselves as true Southeastern District contenders.
That finally came Wednesday night in the form of a 62-56 road victory over No. 10 Oscar Smith.
The Hornets (9-6, 8-2) scored 26 second-chance points and largely avoided the costly turnovers that fuel the Tigers' offense.
As a result Indian River gained sole possession of first place at 9-1, one game ahead of Deep Creek and Oscar Smith. The Braves don't have to play either contender, while the Hornets and Tigers still must meet at Deep Creek.
Deep Creek led for all but 84 seconds, but Oscar Smith (11-6) had possession under its own basket down by three with less than a minute left when the Hornets' Arnie Powell stripped the ball from Mydrionne Halsey. Antonio Rhodes scooped it up for Deep Creek and was fouled with 15.5 seconds left.
Rhodes hit the front end of the one-and-one to make it 60-56, and Oscar Smith called timeout. The Tigers quickly pushed the ball into the frontcourt and Mark Caudell launched a long 3-point attempt that missed.
Deep Creek rebounded and Javon Artis hit a layup at the buzzer.
``He (Halsey) was dribbling the ball and I tipped it from behind,'' Powell said. ``Antonio was coming toward the play and just grabbed it.''
Powell was lucky to get away with the reach-in on Halsey, a play he might not have attempted had his legs been fresher.
Both teams played Tuesday night, and Powell went virtually the entire way against Indian River.
``I was tired,'' he said.
With neither coach willing to go deep into his bench, fatigue figured to be a factor. Oscar Smith, with Dallas Wood out with a bad ankle and Tyrone Williams missing for unspecified reasons, used only seven players and got one point from its bench.
Deep Creek used only six players. But the one reserve, junior Chris Mullins, scored a career-high 14 points. Six of those came in the fourth quarter when a miss each time would have put Oscar Smith into position to take the lead.
``I knew everybody was tired and I had to step up,'' he said. by CNB