THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200290
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 53 lines
Jamie Poindexter and Rashad Smith combined for 30 points and Salem's defense held an opponent without a double-figures scorer for the second straight game as the surprising Sun Devils upset top-seeded Cox 54-40 in a Beach District boys tournament semifinal Wednesday night at Ocean Lakes.
Salem (12-11) will meet Thursday's Kempsville-Ocean Lakes winner in the final Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Ocean Lakes. The winner will advance to next week's Eastern Region tournament.
Cox (20-3) locked up the district's other regional berth by winning the regular-season title.
In Wednesday's lone Beach District girls semifinal, regular-season champion Kempsville advanced to the title game a fifth straight year by downing First Colonial 44-25.
Thursday's Princess Anne-Salem winner will meet Kempsville for the title Friday at 5:45 p.m. at Ocean Lakes and will join the Chiefs in the regional tournament.
Salem's defensive surge was led by Kenny Knightnor, a 6-2 1/2 junior who cooled off high-scoring Cox guard Jaime Irvine. Irvine scored a Beach District tournament-record 36 points against Bayside Monday, but was able to squeeze off only 10 shots against the relentless Knightnor and finished with a team-high nine.
``We respected his game a lot,'' said Poindexter, who led all scorers with 16 points. ``We knew we had to shut him and Carl Lentz down.
Lentz, the Falcons' leading scorer, was marked by Von Hunter (seven assists, one turnover) and Tom Moskal and finished with just eight points.
On Monday, Princess Anne's Ryan Nicodemus, also guarded by Knightnor, scored a team-high seven points in a 50-29 loss.
Knightnor added nine points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots Thursday and Devon Horton had 12 rebounds to go with his eight points for Salem, which trailed for only 25 seconds against the Falcons.
In the girls semifinals, Kempsville (23-1) scored the first nine points and led 11-2 early in the second quarter.
But the Patriots (12-10) rallied behind the play of Hope Breckenridge and Alija Pittenger. Breckenridge hit two of her three 3-pointers and Pittenger got five of her seven points in the quarter to help the Patriots forge a brief 15-13 lead.
From there, however, Rayven Williamson hit a pair of jumpers to start a 28-6 Kempsville surge that extended into the fourth quarter.
``Our strength is we're well conditioned,'' Kempsville's Carrie Heath said. ``Every team's going to have their spurts, but I don't think we had much doubt.''
Williamson finished with a team-high 11 points. Guard Erin Duckett shook off a shin injury to add nine points for the Chiefs, who remained unbeaten in 20 games against district opponents.
Breckenridge led all scorers with 13 points.