ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 24, 1993                   TAG: 9302240218
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


MILLIRON'S SHOT BOOSTS TERRIERS BY BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER

It's because of endings like Tuesday night's in the William Byrd-Lord Botetourt boys' basketball game that coaches get a little older and a little grayer a little faster.

Bobby Milliron pumped in a 15-footer at the buzzer to help Byrd avoid a Botetourt upset bid and win 49-47 in the opening round of the Blue Ridge District tournament at the Salem Civic Center.

William Byrd coach Paul Barnard smiled when someone told him the Terriers had it all the way. After his team had been outrebounded and hounded by Lord Botetourt's zone defense, Byrd was fortunate to be getting another shot at Salem tonight in the semifinals at 7.

The Terriers are fortunate in another respect. Salem will be without second-leading scorer Josh Pugh, who is out with pneumonia.

Milliron's shot was the third option as Byrd inbounded with 1.6 seconds left. The Terriers (15-6) never would have had a chance if Lord Botetourt's Jeff Cronise, trying to inbound the ball from the same spot after a Byrd miscue by Mike McGuire, hadn't thrown it out of bounds at the other end of the court.

"The first option was to [Donald] Childress, then to McGuire coming off a double screen," Barnard said. "If we didn't get one of them, Milliron steps around and tries to get a good look at the basket."

Milliron admits that on his outside shots, he likes to take his time and get set. He didn't have that luxury. "I let it go, but I had a pretty good idea it was going in," he said.

Botetourt (6-15) did everything it could to knock off the Terriers, who were involved in a four-way fight with Salem, Northside and Alleghany for the regular-season title.

"Give Don credit, I thought his game plan was great. He spread the floor on us and out-hustled us for loose balls," Barnard said. "I remember last year when they were doing well and we did the same thing to them and lost on a last-second shot during the season."

Meredith gave plenty of credit to his team.

"We played our hearts out under some tough conditions," he said. "That offense was the old `L' stall we used when I was at Liberty, where we have one man in the middle who picks up a different man to isolate on. It almost worked when we played at Alleghany this year."

Both teams shot well. Botetourt was 20-of-40 from the field, and Byrd made 19-of-42. The Cavaliers outrebounded the Terriers 33-16, with Cronise getting nine.

Botetourt's defense removed David Robertson from Byrd's offense. The Terriers' 6-foot-4 scoring leader got only 10 points and five rebounds.

Byrd won because Donald Childress was hot from the outside with 14 points and Botetourt made seven more turnovers.



by Archana Subramaniam by CNB