Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 21, 1995 TAG: 9511210072
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The eight-team tournament runs at the Salem Civic Center Dec.26-28.
In first-round pairings for Tuesday, Dec.26, host Salem battles Glenvar at 7:45 p.m. and the preceding game at 6 matches Northside against William Fleming.
Other first-round pairings find Patrick Henry meeting William Byrd at 2 p.m., and Franklin County battling Riverside of Durham, N.C., at 3:45.
Salem, a Group AA school, is located less than three miles from Glenvar, a Group A school. Yet the two schools rarely play athletics against one another. This will be their first boys' basketball meeting.
Both teams have done well in boys' basketball lately. Salem won the 1994 Group AA championship while Glenvar was in the 1995 Group A finals and returns several players from that team.
Northside and Fleming are located less than two miles apart. When the schools played all sports as members of the Roanoke Valley District, they frequently drew large crowds.
When Northside dropped to the Group AA Blue Ridge District for the 1988-89 school season, it signaled the end of the schools' football and boys' basketball rivalries.
There hasn't been a football game between the schools since that date. The basketball teams also stopped playing regular season contests.
However, they met three times in regular season basketball tournaments. The Colonels beat the Vikings 84-64 and 66-54 in two tournaments hosted by Salem High in 1988 and 1989.
Northside gained partial revenge in 1993 when the two were matched in a tournament at Virginia High that saw the Vikings prevail 76-65. That Fleming team finished as Group AAA runner-up while Northside was beaten in the Group AA semifinals by Salem.
by CNB