Friday, February 26, 2010
Salem Spartans' tough defense holds court in semifinal against Christiansburg
Salem holds Christiansburg to under 40 percent shooting in the teams' fourth meeting this season.
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ABINGDON -- There would be no buzzer-beating, game-winning halfcourt shot this time for Christiansburg.
Nor were there many other successful shots, for that matter.
Turning up its defense a notch in the Region IV Division 4 semifinals Thursday night, River Ridge District regular season champion Salem held the Blue Demons to 37 percent field goal shooting in a 58-47 victory.
In winning for the third time in four meetings, the Spartans (18-6) advanced to Saturday's regional championship game against Friday's Bassett-Abingdon winner while also earning a berth in next weekend's state quarterfinals.
"Your first goal is to get out of your [district] and we have a tough one," Salem coach Kevin Garst said of the River Ridge. "Once you get out of the [district], the next goal is to survive another day."
Survival for the Spartans, which fell to Christiansburg Feb. 17 in the River Ridge semifinals on Zach Davis' midcourt heave, was based on a tough man-to-man defense which applied consistent ball pressure and denied clean looks for most of the game.
When Christiansburg accessed the lane via penetration, it frequently found multiple helpside defenders in the way. Salem held the Blue Demons (12-10) to six first-quarter points and took a 26-16 lead into the locker room.
"We worked a lot on shell drills and 4-on-4 drills throughout the week," senior forward Stephen Barnette said. "We worked on defensive rotations a lot. Defense is the most important part of the game. We got our rotations down pat tonight."
Christiansburg cut its halftime deficit to three points in the fourth quarter, but the Spartans pulled away via the charity stripe. They were 11-of-14 at the line down the stretch, with Isaac Belton drilling five straight and Bud Tolliver knocking down 3-of-4.
Salem converted just 39 percent of its field goals, but finished the night 22-of-32 at the foul line.
"I think that was a bugaboo they've had in past games," Blue Demons coach Shawn Good said. "They had a game against us earlier when they went to the line 30 times and hit 15.
"Really, I think the biggest thing was that they hit shots around the rim and we missed our shots. I thought we had a lot of opportunities to make shots and couldn't. That kept us from putting more pressure on them."
Barnette led the Spartans with an 18-point, 10-rebound double double. Twin brother Reggie Barnette added 12 points and 10 boards for his own double double as Salem won the rebounding category 38-26.
"When we lost to them last time, I think they had 20 offensive rebounds," Stephen Barnette said. "So we concentrated really hard on boxing out and going after the ball."
Chris Dobbins paced Christiansburg with 16 points and 6-foot-5 sophomore Brenden Motley hit for 11 before fouling out.
Both coaches downplayed a postgame incident where players had to be separated by security after exchanging words. Reggie Barnette could be seen yelling at Blue Demon players as he was guided into the Spartans' dressing quarters.
"Honestly, I didn't even see what happened," Garst said.
"It's the fourth time we've played them and there were a couple of hard fouls during the game. It's unfortunate that two teams from the same [district] have to play each other in an elimination game."
CHRISTIANSBURG (12-10)
Overton 2 0-0 5, C. Lee 0 0-0 0, Dobbins 6 4-5 16, Motley 5 0-1 11, Cummings 3 1-1 7, Winkle 1 0-0 2, G. Lee 0 0-0 0, Davis 0 2-4 2, Koonce 0 0-0 0, Wills 2 0-0 4. Totals 19 7-11 47. SALEM (18-6)
Tolliver 1 3-4 6, R. Barnette 4 4-7 12, S. Barnette 5 8-10 18, Belton 3 5-7 11, Carroll 0 1-2 1, Haskins 0 0-0 0, Mann 1 1-2 4, Tiedemann 2 0-0 6. Totals 16 22-32 58.
Christiansburg 6 10 12 19--47 Salem 11 15 8 24--58
3-point goals--Christiansburg 2 (Overton, Motley), Salem 4 (Tiedemann 2, Tolliver, Mann). Total fouls -- Christiansburg 23, Salem 14. Fouled out--Motley.
