Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 12, 1994 TAG: 9403120130
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Salem had won 63-59 in overtime Friday afternoon, and there was no mistaking the winners and losers among the crowd.
The stricken Northside faithful stood with glazed eyes. One couple distinguished by green and gold attire stood silently hand-in-hand. Another young woman leaned quietly on her escort, his shoulder softly supporting her head. It was as though holding it erect required more effort than she had the heart for.
Across the way, Spartans fans waved hands aloft, laughed, shouted and jumped. The mass slam dance would continue long after the flying saucer-shaped arena would be vacated.
After playing Northside six times and beating the Vikings six times, Salem people have come to be proficient at these postgame demonstrations.
For Northside folks, it just keeps getting more difficult.
Losing a state semifinal is always brutal, but imagine if you lose it to somebody you know, in basketball terms, better than anybody on earth?
"It just happens to be them," said Northside center Dana Gibson, who had 10 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots. "It doesn't matter who it was. What happened before doesn't count now."
Such are the facts, and Salem point guard Bryan Monroe can be as grateful as anybody. It was Monroe who missed his first eight shots and finished 3-for-13 after Northside purposefully left him open during the regular-season engagement on the Vikings' floor. Of course, the Spartans won that one, but it was a squeaker: 71-70.
Naturally, this time, Northside left him open again so as to concentrate its defensive efforts elsewhere. Monroe's response was to make six of nine shots - 4-for-6 from 3-point range - en route to scoring 17 points.
"I didn't feel any pressure," he said. "I put the state semifinals out of my mind. I played it like it was a regular-season game."
The pressure didn't come until later when Salem had blown all of a seven-point lead it had held with 1 minute and 17 seconds left. Northside's Nathan Hungate had made all three free throws after Mark Byington had committed his fifth foul on a 3-point attempt with 12.3 seconds left.
Salem would go without its best player in the overtime.
"I wasn't nervous," Monroe said. "But it would have been easier on my mind if he had been in there playing."
Actually, Salem had a chance to end it in regulation. Stunningly, the Spartans negotiated their way through the Vikings' press after Hungate's three free throws and worked the basketball down to center Nathan Routt on the low right side block. This with no timeouts left. Routt's turnaround off the glass a second before the horn was a fraction firm.
Routt atoned in overtime, though, by scoring six of the Spartans' nine points.
As long as Byington's on the floor, Routt isn't usually a focus of the attack.
"Given the chance, I can do it," Routt said. "I wanted to get the ball inside because I thought I had the chance to either shoot a one-and-one or get a shot at the basket."
Later, after the shouting had died down and the teams had repaired to their dressing quarters, Vikings coach Billy Pope couldn't stop talking about how proud he was of his guys.
"A few days from now, after this is over, I hope some of our fans, some of the students walk up to some of these guys and thank them for what they've done for this school," he said.
Pope's thoughts turned to his two brothers, John and Mike, who had visited Mount Ranier in Washington on Friday. John, a devout Vikings fan, had made plans to visit Mike months ago after checking with the Virginia High School League about the state tournament schedule. Only the person he consulted gave him the wrong dates.
"He'll probably call WROV [AM] and listen on the phone for a while," Billy Pope said. "He's done it before. He's crazy; I wouldn't do it. Actually, I hope he doesn't this time.
"He'll be really disappointed."
by CNB