Friday, February 26, 2010
Northside's Vikings enjoy sweet revenge over Liberty
Northside avenges last year's loss to Liberty and qualifies for the Group AA quarterfinals. | Northside 81, Liberty 58
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MONETA -- A thunderous third-quarter dunk by Dillon Stith gave Liberty's basketball team momentum and sent the Minutemen fans into a frenzy.
Northside guard Adam Burroughs raced upcourt with the ball and then took a shot that might have caused veteran Vikings coach Bill Pope in his younger days to banish the senior to the bench.
Instead, Pope watched as Burroughs' on-the-move, off-one-foot, Earl-the-Pearl-Monroe-style, fadeway jumper hit nothing but net.
It left no doubt. Northside was on the way to an 81-58 Region III Division 3 semifinal victory over Liberty at Staunton River High School that qualified the Vikings for the Group AA quarterfinals for the first time since 2001.
Trey Smith scored a game-high 25 points and Burroughs added 21 as Northside (22-2) advanced to Saturday's regional final in Staunton against Waynesboro.
The Vikings controlled the game from the outset against the Seminole District champions. Burroughs, who scored just four points in a first-round win Tuesday against Robert E. Lee, was in command.
"I had a pretty good feeling," Pope said. "He's got a lot of pride. He was pretty ready to play."
Burroughs' big shot came after Liberty (19-6) had cut a 19-point deficit to 41-27 on Stith's dunk just before halftime.
Burroughs answered with his patented move, a drive to the left and a pull-up jumper, a shot lost on many high school players.
"We've been trying to tell him, 'You're special with that. Don't leave something you're really good at because you see other guys like everybody's got to play a certain style,' " Pope said. "We've tried to encourage him that this is his game, this is his strength. It's pretty obvious because he's got a great pull-up."
Burroughs wasn't as analytical.
"I just had the good feeling in my arm," he said.
Liberty coach Jeff Monroe was impressed.
"I've seen Adam play for three years now and that's probably the best I've seen him play," Monroe said. "He had a heck of a game. What a time to have it, in a big game like this."
Northside had other standouts. Center Steven Richie had 14 points with most of them on stickbacks. Backup guard Ryan Palmieri keyed several first-half fast breaks.
Most importantly, Smith gave the Vikings another inside presence, scoring all 25 of his points in the first three quarters as the Blue Ridge District champs built a 64-46 lead.
"That's clearly a development from last year," Pope said. "He'd just kind of gravitate out to the perimeter if things got tough. Tonight when things got physical he just kept going in there and getting after it."
Smith was taken down hard twice. He was fouled on a breakaway by Anthony Reynolds. Later, he was undercut by Malcolm McCoy for an intentional foul. Smith started after McCoy briefly but order quickly was restored after police officers took the floor.
"He undercut me on the inbounds pass," Smith said. "I was right in the air and came under my legs. The other fall was bad. I hit my chin on the floor."
The pain wasn't as bad as last year's 54-37 regional semifinal loss to Liberty that ended the Vikings' season.
"We talked about it in school today that this was going to be a revenge game," Burroughs said. "We wanted to go out there and put it on them right."
Justin Martin scored all 15 of his points on 3-pointers, while Ryan Nichols added 14 for Liberty. The Minutemen knew they were not playing the same Northside team as a year ago.
"We knew they got a lot better," Nichols said. "We knew their tempo was a lot faster. We tried to stop them. I guess we couldn't do it."
NORTHSIDE (19-6)
Thornburg 0 1-2 1, N.Brown 2 2-2 7, Richie 6 2-2 14, Burroughs 10 0-0 21, Smith 9 7-10 25, Palmieri 2 4-4 8, Gillard 0 0-0 0, Arnold 0 2-4 2, Curry 1 0-0 3, Keith 0 0-0 0, Bailey 0 0-0 , Bowden 0 0-0 0, Amos 0 0-0 0, Beucus 0 0-0 0. Totals 30 18-24 81.
LIBERTY (22-2)
Martin 5 0-0 15, Nichols 6 1-2 13, D.Stith 1 0-2 2, Wright 1 1-4 3, Reynolds 3 6-10 12, Thompson 1 0-0 2, Harper 1 0-0 2, Sparrow 0 2-2 2, Clark 0 0-0 0, McCoy 0 2-2 2, S.Stith 0 2-2 2, D.Brown 1 0-0 3. Totals 19 14-26 58.
Northside 23 20 21 17--81
Liberty 14 13 19 12--58
3-point-goals -- Northside 3 (Burroughs, Brown, Curry), Liberty 6 (Martin 5, D.Brown). Total fouls -- Northside 21, Liberty 19. Fouled out -- none.
