THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 28, 1996 TAG: 9602280527
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Tallwood's 54-45 Eastern Region quarterfinal victory over Lake Taylor Tuesday provided a weird twist to typical foul problems.
For Lake Taylor, the trouble wasn't too many fouls - it was not enough.
With a little more than three minutes remaining in the game at Tallwood, the Lions enjoyed a nine-point lead.
With time quickly becoming the Titans' enemy, the Eastern District tournament runner-up was forced to foul in an effort to get the ball back.
But Lake Taylor had only three team fouls at the time.
``That is kind of unusual, isn't it?'' Tallwood coach Johnny Pope said.
By the time Lake Taylor picked up its seventh team foul, there were only two minutes remaining.
From that point Tallwood hit 6 of 11 free throws and chased down two missed bonuses to help keep the Titans at bay.
With the victory, third-ranked Tallwood (21-3) advances to a 7:30 p.m. semifinal Thursday at Churchland against Indian River - a 77-48 victor over Phoebus - with a Group AAA quarterfinal berth awaiting the winner.
That No. 8 Lake Taylor (15-8) was even close enough to try and send Tallwood to the line to get the ball back was surprise enough. The Titans had played poorly in the first half - falling behind 27-14.
``We were sleep-walking on offense in the second quarter,'' Titans coach John Kelly said of his team's five point effort. ``They out-hustled us on both ends of the court, so give fair dues to Tallwood.''
The difference to that point was the man-to-man defensive play of the Lions - forcing four first-half turnovers and twice as many bad shots.
``Our defense makes us good,'' said Lions point guard Phil Clay, who scored 15 points to go with 16 from Rian Everett and 10 from Neil Roberts. ``It just helps us keep going with the flow.''
Had it not been for Brian Kelley scoring all of Lake Taylor's five second quarter points, the game could have been all but over at that point.
Kelley finished as the game's leading scorer with 19 points.
Early in the fourth quarter, Tallwood went to its spread offense to protect a 41-29 lead, but it wasn't as effective as usual because point guard Clay was on the bench with three fouls.
Kelley started the fourth with three points that cut the lead to less than 10 for the first time since midway through the second quarter and his team then took advantage of three steals and a turnover to close the gap to 41-34 before Clay came back in with five minutes left.
His presence was felt immediately, scoring on a quick drive to the basket and following a miss to build the lead back to 11 - just about the time Lake Taylor's foul troubles started. by CNB