Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010098
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In the span of 23 seconds, Arrington gave the Minutemen the push they needed as they rallied to beat the Terriers 68-63 in a Region III boys' basketball tournament first-round game at the Salem Civic Center.
Liberty (19-3) will be trying to earn a berth in the Group AA tournament when it plays Martinsville in a regional semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. If the Minutemen win, it will put an end to the career of Bulldogs coach Husky Hall, who has more than 600 victories and is the state's winningest public school coach.
In the opener Tuesday, Laurel Park beat Altavista 56-42. The Lancers will play Northside at 6 p.m. Thursday, with the winner of that game also advancing to state play.
Byrd (18-5) had just used a 9-2 spurt, sparked by seven points from Jeremy Obenchain, to open a 49-40 lead near the end of the third quarter. Then, Arrington, a skinny youngster who has seen a lot of playing time for Liberty, hit a 3-point shot with 1:12 left in the quarter.
After Obenchain hit a layup, Arrington made another 3-point shot and was fouled. He sank the free throw, leaving Liberty down by four points. Then, Zac St.Clair stole the ball and converted a layup, trimming Byrd's lead to 51-49 through three quarters.
``If you're going to beat Byrd, you'd better put out unbelievable effort. Quite honestly, we hadn't gotten that effort lately,'' said Liberty coach Mark Hanks, whose team had lost two of its past five games.
When Arrington wasn't doing it on offense, he was playing defense. He was one of the main defenders on Byrd's Chris Childress. The Blue Ridge District's player of the year scored 15 points in the opening half. After intermission, Arrington, sophomore Chris Ridgeway and St.Clair took turns holding Childress to three field-goal attempts and six points.
Gregg Reynolds also did a top defensive job on another Byrd leader, Mike McGuire. The senior guard had 10 points, but was limited to two in the second half. Those came on the last play of the game, when Liberty was safely ahead.
``That's Reynolds,'' Hanks said. ``He's struggled all year offensively, but that's the kind of player he is. He still plays hard. We felt coming in we had to neutralize McGuire and Childress.''
Arrington finished with 13 points and more minutes than usual.
``Coach [Hanks] told me to let it go if I'm open and it happens,'' he said. ``In the second half, he told us to go and D [defense] it up. That's what won the game.''
While Arrington kept Byrd from running away, Liberty's Stephen Shrader, a 6-foot-4 senior center, took over in the final quarter. He scored 12 of his game-high 22 points, including a layup with 2:50 left that gave Liberty a 58-57 lead the Minutemen never lost.
Shrader leads Timesland with a 77.4 field-goal percentage, shooting mostly layups. ``It just turned out that they started getting it in there [to me] and we kept on going,'' Shrader said.
``I think he beat us the last three or four minutes with stick-backs,'' said Paul Barnard, Byrd's coach. ``We had a four-point lead after Arrington's baskets and then threw it away. Their [defensive] pressure makes you play faster than you want to play.''
Shrader hit two more field goals and two free throws, and Byrd got only a follow shot by Childress as the Minutemen opened a 64-59 lead with 1:07 to take control.
The Minutemen had a 31-27 rebounding advantage while shooting 27-for-52 from the field. Byrd was 21-of-45.
In the opener, Warrick Scott hit 21 points as Laurel Park pulled away after the first quarter to whip Altavista. Rashad Wall blocked four shots and had 14 rebounds for the Lancers (19-5).
by CNB