Bristol Herald Courier from Bristol, Tennessee • 18

Page 2C Bristol Herald CourierVirginia Tennessean Wednesday ebruary 21 1996 GIV opens Region By ROBERT ANDERSON Bristol Herald Courier Two groups of athletes familiar with postseason pressure will carry the Hogo heegee District colors this week in the Region volleyball tournament Hogoheegee champion George Wythe starts the eight team event tonight at 7 clock with a best of three match against Pioneer District runner up Parry McCluer (10 2 12 5) On Thursday night at 7 Hogo heegee runner up Northwood goes to Pio neer champion Glenvar 11 1 11 4) the defending regional runner up The other first round matches Thursday night will have Giles at Narrows and Au burn at Galax The four opening round winners will advance to the semifinals and finals Saturday at Narrows High School The George Wythe Parry McCluer win ner plays Saturday at 10:30 against the Narrows Giles survivor The other semi final will start 20 minutes after the first match The championship match on Sat urday is scheduled to begin 50 minutes after the second semifinal ends George Wythe has been a dominant vol leyball force in the 1990s under veteran head coach Lillie Moore The Maroons volleyball tournament tonight come at the hands of Group AA schools (uate city and Abmgdon) three game matches If the Maroons are lethargic against Parry McCluer they could receive a Group A loss semifinals in December George Wythe and Northwood staged one of the top matches of the season last won the Group A state title in 1992 and and finished as the state runner up in However many of the players on this team tasted defeat last year falling to Glenvar in the regional semifinals as John Battle took the championship Moore says that everything but the next game is irrelevant at this point just try and' take them one game at a time and take care of your own busi Moore said think tired of practicing now and are ready to play I know if we play like capable that be just (16 0 17 2) saw both of its losses saw them play against Bath County and part of their game with Moore said a scrappy little team and they hustle They looked like a good little defensive North wood has boasted one of the best girls fall and winter sports programs in Southwest Virginia in recent years and this volleyball team is keyed by many of the players who lifted the Pan thers into the Group A state basketball Thursday the Hogoheegee tournament finals as the Maroons pulled out a 5 15 15 12 15 11 victory Returning All Group A hitter Kim Cor vin powers George attack Corvin had 28 kills in the district finals Tonya Cregger who had 29 assists in the match is the top setter North wood coached by Carolyn Jones is led by returning Hogoheegee hitter of the year Jess Prater a second team All Group A pick last year and sophomore Jill Woodward King of free throws Larry Sharrett has hit an amazing 71 of 75 Sharrett the total was 26 he seems sur The 325 irith 48 iuch culling deck and a 17 hp orerfiead ralve engine College basketball previews uJOHN DEERE 1 Register for ood City 500 Race tickets By TREY WILLIAMS Bristol Herald Courier 79 aiYiilablf Imagine riding your very own John Deere 325 with Kiwerfnl 17 hp engine and a 4S inch cutting deck It you think that's an interesting thought take advantage of our low financing dunng Deere Season and start having fun with the real thing when McCall missed a potential tying 3 pointer Widener re bounded and iced the game with two free throws with 49 seconds to play Holston now turns its attention to Lebanon a team the Cavaliers defeated twice to jumpstart their winning streak been really proud of our Coleman said been drained We won seven games in nine days and five in five nights last week four of those on the road time to start Mitchell feels like start ing next season tomorrow After beginning his first year 0 8 officials least like doing Ac tho faomc knnrl 1' vnv Ltawo iicau UdLA UpUUUIL dunng a Graham fast break a com your When Smith called with the BIR position Byrd jumped at the op portunity 46 and lived my whole life in Winston Byrd said love the Bristol area As a mat ter of fact I know if I would have moved anywhere else tells you what I think of the game was really symbolic of our whole Abingdon se nior wing Joe Waters said played pretty well in the last three or four minutes but it seemed like our minds were somewhere else at other times started off fairly decent this season and then won two games last week I thought we were going to turn things around but it turn out that Sophomore guard Scott Mash burn paced Abingdon (8 14) with16 points Waters canned 14 points and Highlands scoring leader Wes Basham (20 ppg) finished with 11 Basham Waters and four year guard Josh Whitlock are all se niors Abingdon was hurt by lack of In recent evolution of basketball gaining ample attention on the highlight reel seems to have be come as important as wins and losses (OMi "2 Style dwarfs substance and fun damentals appear to have eroded in the mix In the collegiate ranks free throw shooting percentages have dropped noticeably A hack on the arm has often become a player's best defensive play But foul Larry Sharrett While the sophomore guard for King College can display moves that show worked on style Sharrett also sticks with the meat and potatoes of basketball Sharrett a graduate of King sport Christian has drained 71 of 75 free throws this season a cool 947 percent in a slump lately missing three of his last 21 air to signify since the Men are making a substitution and the player who's leaving the game off the floor yet but Moffatt administers the foul shot No one complains on the Blues Bench though and Graham heads for halftime up 19 5 As the teams head off the floor Gannaway has to warn a couple of players who are planting forearm shivers into each other more cat and mouse he says to each one as the half ends The refs are satisfied with their work but adjust their rotation due to the smaller than normal floor at Richlands (80 feet as opposed to the regulation 94) better off with two cen ters as opposed to a center and a oreman says In halfcourt situations the lead official on the play works the baseline the trail We lowered our interest rate in the hopes of raising yours key for a 65 56 lead with six min utes to play The Trojans kept their poise and Holston began taking some ill advised shots as the visitors crept back in the game Hall Brummitt forward Scott Collins and guard Drew McCall had big hoops for Battle which tied the game 74 74 on a drive by Brummitt with 1:17 left then went ahead 76 75 on an other drive by the left hander with 54 seconds left Brummitt finished with 24 points most coming on drives to his left told our guys he was going to take it to the Coleman said still got in there and our help very (857 pct)y(wW Sharrett hit his first 34 this sea son before seeing one bounce off knew it the minute it left my Sharrett said left it short I going to stop reading the paper I had picked up the paper that day and saw Sharrett extends free throw Which hints at an impor tant cog of foul shooting: concentration If any thing else is in your head be sides dropping the shot a po tential detriment not like I stand around all the time practicing free Sharrett said hit a few at the beginning of the year and got real comfortable But as the streak got going it added some tracks in the country question NASCAR has the most exciting racing there in Bris Byrd said testament to that is how many people are wait ing in line for Byrd is also enthusiastic about approach to the raceway said unequivocally that he intends to build on the tradi tion that Larry (Carrier) Byrd said talked for a long time about his plans and one is to return a profitt to Speedway Motorsports and Bristol is a big part of Speedway Motorsports Inc a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange pur chased BIR on Jan 22 from Car rier a swing at Men center David Bailey The roundhouse right glances off the back of head and oreman steps in im mediately He calls a flagrant foul the player's fifth personal and ejects him from the game The ejection carries an automatic one game suspension and the Blues fans unload a torrent of abuse at foreman Claudia son Christian 18 and daughter Belton Byrd said Byrd is familiar with Bristol having attended Winston Cup events as well as IHRA events over the years As far as Byrd is concerned BIR is one of the best against a tough schedule the Tro jans played 500 ball the rest of the way the second week of Janu ary our kids played with a lot of Mitchell said JOHN BATTLE (78) Brummitt 10 3 4 24 Collins 1 3 4 5 Hall 13 5 9 31 Loudy 0 0 0 0 McCall 3 2 4 9 Odum 1 0 0 2 Waters 1 3 4 5 Taylor 1 0 0 2 Totals 30 16 23 78 HOLSTON (81) Campbell 3 0 0 9 Matheny 6 2 5 14 Widener 8 9 12 25 Tebbenkamp 0 2 3 2 Owens 6 2 5 14 South 1 1 2 3 DeBusk 4 2 2 10 DWidener 2 0 0 4 Totals 30 18 29 81 John Battle 19 17 16 Holston 22 18 18 3 point goals John Battle 2 (Brummitt 1 McCall 1) Holston 3 (Campbell 3) Total fouls John Battle 25 Holston 22 ouled out Odum McCall Holston was shaky in the fourth quarter but with the game on the line the Cavaliers held their poise Holston worked the ball patiently for an opening and Owens drove for a tough pullup shot in the lane for a 77 76 lead with 28 seconds left did a good job Coleman said wanted to try to spread out and do something off the Battle never got a chance to go back in front Campbell stepped in front of a return pass to Brummitt near midcourt beat the Trojan player to the ball and took a hard foul on his way to the basket Campbell had to be replaced in the lineup by DeBusk who made both free throws for a 79 76 lead final chance came up short RES rom Page 1C BYRD rom Page 1C mercials keeping some games from developing pletely Having a goal at house sure hurt always thought that the best time to shoot free throws is when by Shar rett said lot of the big time prospects are from the inner cit ies and probably ever have a goal to Of course most that do utilize it the way Sharrett has thing helped Sharrett said up there I like to think that the only one in the And the fact that he spent many nights being the only one shooting has him hitting 95 per cent If he miss several in regular season finale Wednesday at Tennessee Wes leyan Sharrett will be alone once more at the top of the free throw leaders CAVS rom Page 1C pressure I started thinking about it some and now missed three in the last week So taken some pressure part of a basketball generation raised in the slam dunking virtual hoops reality of Nike and Reebok He says the commercial age does have its in fluence saw something on Sports center about why shooting and free throw percentages are Sharrett said athlete wants to dunk and fly to the basket all the time A lot want to stand around and shoot free It never seemed like a task to Sharrett who occassionally stood in his driveway growing up and knocked out 100 He even had a painted free throw line before the concrete was busted so a sep tic line could be put down Sharrett also says more than antics in Reebok com MARION rom Page 1C depth turnovers and by the team size of Marion After a number of ties at the end of the regular season the jumbled Highlands junior varsity picture also became a bit clearer Tuesday night as Lee High stopped Gate City 54 40 Lee High will now play Virginia High on Thursday at 5 pm in Gate City The winner of that game will face Marion at 6:30 MARION (68) Keith 3 0 0 6 Mitchell 0 0 2 Heath 0 1 3 1 Sage 3 0 0 6 Dexter 7 4 4 18 fcasnake 2 4 6 8 Hayes 2 9 13 13 Lincoln 5 0 0 10 Thompson 2 0 0 4 Totals 25 18 29 68 ABINGDON (51) Mashbum 5 5 6 16 Whitlock 1 1 4 3 Basham 5 1 2 11 Waters 5 3 3 14 Blackson 0 0 0 0 Mitchell 2 1 2 5 Thompson 0 0 0 0 Pochvla 0 2 2 2 Totals 18 13 19 51 Marion 20 14 15 Abingdon 8 13 3 point goals Marion none Abingdon 2 (Mashburn Waters) Total Marion 21 Abingdon 23 ouled out Heath Whitlock Sage is closest to midcourt and the cen ter is on the other side of the benches between his partners That adjustment made the of ficials head out for the second half Richlands begins to hit their threes and makes the game more competitive but the physically su perior Men win 47 30 start to the says oreman in the dressing room The refs take a minute or two to towel off and down some cold drinks then get ready for the main event Officials prepare for games in different ways or instance the 31 year old Gannaway of ficiated since 1989 and has made Bailey hits the free throws and Graham scores on the ensuing pos session for a four point play and a 32 point lead The remainder of the game proceeds without further incident and the Men leave town with a 79 59 triumph More than anything else the in cident illustrates how important it is for officials to watch action off the ball the toughest thing for a young official to learn not to watch the says Gannaway you have three ball watchers out there you can miss everything that happens I have to watch an area and have confidence that my partners will watch an area The trio shower and dress then get out of Richlands about 25 min utes after the final buzzer After stopping in Lebanon for supper back in Abingdon around 11pm As they pull into Abingdon oreman reflects on the night they were all like this quit he says had one team that was just above the other one There was nothing we could do about this game I felt our court coverage was good and that we were More than anything else what officials seek is anonymity Bristol area ref Ron Barnett put it best you want he said to work a game and then meet someone in the store who was at the game and didn't know you were doing it You want to hear them say that some even want nennle tn know you were ready to deal with situations and be mentally alert hard to make an adjustment to 'walking out of the car and getting into a game atmosphere This requires a lot of quick decision Decisions will come fast and fu rious for this crew on this night The game is physical from the out set and both teams are in the bonus early in the second quarter It becomes the type of game hardest to call one with a lot of missed shots and no domi nant rebounder Graham leads 21 18 midway through the second quarter when they put together an 18 3 run and go into halftime up 39 21 4 nwf lit 9 I 3 nun LAicxuv lUUia LUU we Call that half asks oreman in and Buzz Peterson remain in the hunt as does one darkhorse Penn State assistant Edward DeChellis Hanners who served as an as sistant at ETSU from 1985 89 will area to uproute my family (wife niLciview anu visit me campus Wednesday Peterson who as sisted former Buc head coach Les Robinson during the 1989 90 sea son will interview riday DeCh ellis been an assistant at Penn State since 1986 wil come to Johnson City on Monday No interview date has been set for the mystery contestant ETSU narrows coaching prospects down to four JOHNSON CITY And then there were four Realizing that the recruiting path will need to be beaten heavi ly East Tennessee Athletic Direc tor Keener ry is wasting little time in whittling down the candi dates list as to who will succeed ETSU basketball coach Alan Le orce 10 applicants were trimmed to four on Tuesday although the identity of one be released until later in the week ormer ETSU assistants Dave Hanners ARKANSAS at TENNESSEE 8:08 pm when the Vols appear to have their wounds healed from a J0 50 beating by Kentucky Saturday they have to turn around and take on SEC Western Division leading Arkansas in Thompson s'? Arena (Jefferson Pilot WAPK Channel 30) Arkansas (8 4 16 8) is by no means a Kentucky but the Razorbacks are certainlv a tough act Arkansas start three freshmen in 6 8 forward Derek Hood (6 ppg) and guards Kareem Reid (134 ppg) and Pat Brad ley (9 ppg) At center the have 6 11 Darnell Robinson (111 PPg' Arkansas averages 788 points a game while giving up an average of 733 Tennessee (4 8 11 11) averages 61 a game and UP 61 6 a game Center Steve Hamer averages 169 points while guard Brandon Wharton scores 122 a game WOORD at ETSU 7:30 pm East Tennessee State (3 9 7 16) tries to snap a six game losing streak when it hosts Wofford Wednesday night at Memorial Cen ter The latest waxing came on the road at Marshall where ETSU yielded 111 points and lost by 27 The Bucs were out rebounded 40 27 Shahid Perkins did manage 21 points and three assists while point guard Randy Dodson played fairlv well (16 points) In the Bucs earlier meeting on the road Jan 17 Wofford became first Division I win Small Colleges The Virginia Intermont men and women face a must win situation tonight in the Golden Dome at Bluefield The slumping VI men (6 13 12 19) are tied with King College for the final spot into the TVAC tournament while the VI women (4 15 9 20) must win and then have Montreat and Bryan lose to tie for a tourney spot Six foot 1 junior post Shonna Whitson from Happy Valley set a school record for VI with 24 rebounds against Bluefield last 4 week The Bluefield men feature TVAC freshman of the year Keath Hampton King College will visit Tennessee Wesleyan in a TVAC dou Lbleheader Wednesday The Torndao men have won four of its last five conference games and has come from the dead as far as postseason tournaments go A King win paired with a loss by Virinia Intermont (at Bluefield) Wednesday and the Tornado will make the tournament field Also if VI King and Bryan all three I lose King and VI would have a coin toss for the final tourney slot VI does control its own destiny with a win The Lady Tornado (8 11 11 14) has already locked up a spot 1 and endure the same sense of urgency King ripped Montreat 75 59 on Monday as senior Lori Austin led the way with 19 points during her final Kline Gymnasium performance (Bjorn Dm 7aMJeun325LBi and i 50try EcDiPinEri to re JOHN DEERE SALES AND SERVICE SINCE 1 958 Hwy 11 Abingdon Virginia (540) 628 5126 (540) 466 4741 loJSESn the floor want to get people mad at The first half is routine with just a couple of minor glitches On one play a Graham player deflects a cross court pass and has a clear shot at a steal but the ball hits oreman aligned in the trail po sition near midcourt at the same time the Graham player does and ends up out of bounds almost made the save for cracks oreman to chuckling Men coach Jeff Stone The other situation comes while Graham is shooting a free throw nuiutcu oiliuc auu Udb Iliaue oreman is raising his hand in the the climb to Division I bas rx i 1 1 011 Zy 1 TkCLUdll V4UIK1I DID nn 1 Miat iiakkf MW dotvo UI cHldn ID lerence games this year likes to the locker room When told that know a team tendencies the total was 26 he seems sur helps to know if a team prised it was that few presses plays a zone or if they're a Things get any better for nght handed or left handed the Blues as the third quarter be says Gannaway who works for the gins In fact they're down 53 25 Department of the Treasury in midway through the period when Bnsto I I dont like to single oreman has to do the thing most vzviv 4X1CXU )UUCJ1 vic Moffatt is the only one of the three who has seen either team he had Graham in a mid season frustrated Richlands player takes gCA444C QU ATACL11V11 UUL lie WdllUS no pre conceived notions about any team or individual high school I don't think you have much opportunity to do in depth says the 41 year old Moffatt a nine year vet eran of officiating who works for a law firm think the best type of prepa ration is to try and get in a good frame of minJ You have to be In 4 4.