THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 21, 1997 TAG: 9702211040
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 55 lines
Sometimes you gotta believe in sports, and Norview boys basketball coach Darnell Miller admits he's a believer.
When it looked as if only a prayer would beat Booker T. Washington in Thursday night's Eastern District semifinal, Miller believed. He believed in sophomore Keith Willis and he had faith in a 5-year-old play from the Duke-Kentucky NCAA region final. That combination helped Norview escape with a 51-50 victory over the Bookers in a thriller at Wilson High.
``Every year we come up with a basketball theme,'' Miller said, ``and this year it's victories come to those who believe.''
The Pilots (15-7), on a seven-game win streak, face Lake Taylor in tonight's Eastern District championship at 7:30 with the winner advancing to next week's Eastern Regional. The Titans (17-6) rolled past Maury 67-53 in the night's first game. The Bookers (18-3), who continued to play without 6-foot-5 center Terry Gray, have already advanced to the regional by virtue of winning the regular season.
With a minute remaining, the Bookers and Pilots, who split the regular season, stood tied at 48. Then Willis was fouled while shooting with 26.7 seconds on the clock. He knocked down the first of two shots but rimmed the second.
``You shoot free throws all the time in practice; you gotta make those,'' Willis lamented to himself.
And it looked as if free throws would decide the outcome when Markee Burton fouled guard Kelvin Fuller, and Fuller converted both shots to give Booker T. a 50-49 edge with 2.4 seconds remaining.
But two timeouts gave Miller a chance to diagram one of the most famous plays in Duke history - Christian Laettner taking the inbounds pass from Grant Hill and nailing the turnaround jumper from the top of the key to give the Blue Devils a last-second win. Initially Miller thought about making David Martin his go-to guy, but he settled on Willis, who has the longest arms on the team and is Norview's best jump shooter.
Burton threw the pass the length of the court and Willis came down with it.
``I was thinking he was going to catch the thing at the top of the key,'' Miller said. ``The pass was a little bit off, both of them went up and it came down in the arms of the guy who's been scoring for us all year.''
Willis, who led all scorers with 19, netted not a jumper but a layup as time expired.
In the first game, Toni Harrell's 28 points paced Lake Taylor past a Commodores team that never found its spark. Maury's outside shooters failed to find their range in the second period, and nothing worked inside versus the Titans' defense. Lake Taylor, up by only two at the end of the third quarter, outscored the Commodores 24-12 in the fourth.
Maury finished its season at 15-7. ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Maury's Kiyam Holloway, right, drives to the basket as Lake Taylor's
Toni Harrell, 33, moves in too late for the block.